MARITIME

12 September Lampedusa, Italy

Early on September 12, a group of unseaworthy, overcrowded iron boats came into Italian island Lampedusa, a fishing and tourist hub south of Sicily. 6,800 migrants came in about 24 hours, more people than the full-time population of Lampedusa. The boats and migrants launched from Tunisia. The flotilla taxed the Italian coast guard’s ability to intercept the smugglers’ vessels and testing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s commitment to end irregular migration.