Conditions at the overcrowded migrant centre on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa remain ''inhuman'', opposition Democratic Party (PD) deputy head Dario Franceschini said Friday.
Franceschini and a PD delegation visited the migrant centre on Friday to witness what he described as a ''humanitarian emergency'' after complaints from Lampedusa residents as well as the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Earlier in the week the number of illegal immigrants at the 850-bed centre rose to 1,850 after Interior Minister Roberto Maroni pledged to keep all immigrants who land by boat on the island's shores at the centre until they can be identified and repatriated.
''Many migrants have been in the centre for weeks and the conditions are inhuman,'' Franceschini said following his visit to the centre, where many immigrants have to sleep outside in tents.
''Only the good will and self-sacrifice of the centre's volunteers alleviate the suffering of people forced to stay piled up together like animals.
''Maroni trusts in the distance between Rome and Lampedusa to say that the emergency is over and that from today the new identification and expulsion centre (CIE) is functional. The problem is that I'm here on the island and I've seen that the emergency is still intolerable and there's no trace of the CIE,'' he added.
Franceschini said the naval base where the CIE is supposed to be operational currently hosts 80 women transferred from the migrant centre on Thursday evening.
''At the moment I only see a few mattresses and a lot of frightened women who were transferred as an emergency measure because of our visit,'' he said.
