Photo Gallery Crossing to Safety
On an almost daily basis, the Italian coast guard escorts boats found on the Mediterranean to the island of Lampedusa, where migrants from North Africa hope to enter Europe.
Most of the arrivals are men, but the first boats full of Libyan refugees landed on Monday morning with a pregnant woman who had given birth during the trip.
Three boats from Libya arrived this weekend, carrying about 800 people -- among them Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis. Most of them were escorted by the Italian coast guard to a smaller island called Linosa.
Roberto Maroni, Italy's interior minister and a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, warned of a "biblical exodus" in mid-February if unrest in Libya caused Moammar Gadhafi's regime to fall.
The refugee crisis on Lampedusa has not been ignored by the European far right. The leader of France's National Front party, Marine Le Pen, came to the island in mid-March to explain to the newcomers that they weren't welcome in Europe.
Her speech was met by about a dozen local protesters, who held up signs reading, "Lampedusa is not racist!" One of the demonstrators told a reporter, "Madame le Pen is xenophobic, racist and neo-fascist. We don't want her here."
