THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Hundreds of Tunisians protested against their imminent repatriation by setting fire to the reception centre they were being held in on the remote Italian island of Lampedusa.
The devastating fire, which started when the migrants allegedly set fire to their bed mattresses, reduced much of the controversial centre to a smoking ruin.
It dealt a heavy blow to Italy's ability to deal with a continuing flood of refugees from North Africa in the wake of the popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt and the civil war in Libya.
More than 48,000 have reached the shores of southern Italy since the start of the year.
Many of the 1,200 migrants held in the centre fled when three fires broke out late on Tuesday.
As police stationed on the island rounded them up, the fires blazed out of control and destroyed three buildings in the complex. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Wednesday, September 21, 2011
