On Lampedusa, there's sympathy for migrants — as long as they don't stay
Some 12,000 migrants — more than twice the population of this island — arrived in a single week this month. Islanders showed compassion, but prefer that any newcomers leave as quickly as possible.
LAMPEDUSA, Italy — The small harbor in Lampedusa is crowded with a fleet of dilapidated wooden and metal smuggler's boats, some half-submerged. Discarded life jackets, filthy clothes and plastic water bottles float in the sea.
It's the debris of thousands of migrants who recently arrived on the shores of this small Italian island. Lampedusa is the closest piece of European territory to North Africa, so many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean land there first. It is the gateway to Europe.
On the dock, aid workers and medical staff — pale from lack of sleep — help men and families clamber out of two more boats
