Lampedusa e Linosa
Lampedusa e Linosa is a municipality of the province of Agrigento in the Italian region of Sicily.
Location and data
The parish includes the three Pelagie islands south of the Strait of Sicily. The 6216 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) is distributed among the islands of Lampedusa and Linosa. The island Lampione also belongs to the municipality, but is uninhabited.
The districts are Lampedusa, Linosa, CRECA Cala, Cala Francese, Grecale and Terra Nova. The inhabitants live mainly from agriculture, fisheries and tourism.
Lampedusa can be reached from Palermo by plane. Daily from Porto Empedocle drives a boat to the islands.
History
On the island of Lampedusa remains have been found of Greek, Roman and Arab settlements. In 1834 the island was systematically colonized by Bernardo Maria Sanvisente, an envoy of Ferdinand II. The island of Linosa was settled in 1845.
As early as 2007, and in the wake of the political changes in Tunisia and Libya from January 2011 to try people from North Africa to ferry from the coast of Tunisia about 150 km to Lampedusa.
In October 2013 it was under the boat fugitives a high number of casualties on October 3, a ship wrecked; subsequently moved even further incoming refugee boats in the media's attention. Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta announced on October 9 at a state funeral for the refugees, but which did not take place. The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso announced that the EU would support Italy with 30 million euros in dealing with the breakdown of refugees. In Italy also the Bossi- Fini law came into the discussion, because of its illegal immigration shall be punished with imprisonment.
Attractions
Worth seeing are the marine fauna and flora of the islands the African theme. Some of the beaches are the turtle to lay eggs, so these areas were asked in October 2002 under nature protection.
Award
On 2 July 2004, the Italian Republic, the town of Lampedusa and Linosa awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Merit ( Medaglia d' oro al Merito Civile ).