Italian security sources said 16 Egyptian illegal immigrants are being sent back to Egypt after arriving at Lampedusa, an Italian island southwest of Sicily, on a ship coming from Libya that was carrying mostly Africans.
The authorities said they were in the process of transferring the immigrants to Palermo Airport in Sicily and then to Cairo.
Many illegal immigrants have flocked to Lampedusa since early this year as protests erupted in Tunisia and Libya.
Italy and Tunisia had previously signed an agreement that stipulated the deportation of illegal immigrants who arrived after 5 April, while those who arrived before that were granted temporary residence documents until they settle their cases.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
