Italy has seen an influx of illegal migrant arrivals via the Mediterranean Sea in recent weeks, overwhelming processing centers on the island of Lampedusa and resulting in several deaths. “The Mediterranean is becoming the biggest cemetery of the desperate,” one Sicilian official said. The summer months often see an uptick in migrants arrivals from North Africa and South Asia, and the recent wave comes as Italy’s anti-immigrant far-right political bloc looks set to win national elections this fall. We take a look at migrant arrival numbers since 2014.
