Unintended Consequences

Photo: AP Photo/Daniele La Monaca
A would-be immigrant is escorted to register at a re-opened detention center on the island of Lampedusa, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011.

via Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees | Europe | English.

Tunisia’s interim cabinet says it plans to discuss a response to the thousands of people who have fled the country and landed on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa during the past few days.

After the revolution, thousands of Tunisians have fled the country, many taking small boats across the Mediterranean to the Italian outpost of Lampedusa.

A spokeswoman in Italy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says some Tunisians are fleeing because they are worried about violence and the instability in their homeland while others who were close to the former president are seeking protection.

Most of the refugees have been transported to the Italian mainland for processing;  however, more continue to arrive on the island.

[Italy’s Interior Minister] Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because “there is an institutional and political earthquake” underway in Tunisia that could “devastate” Europe.