The exasperated mayor of nearby Italian island of Lampedusa wants Malta, or Libya, to take over the island.

The mayor, Bruno Siragusa, was speaking to GuidaSicilia last week.

Lampedusa, like Malta, is the target of numerous illegal immigrant arrivals. Only last weekend, 400 illegal immigrants, including 14 women and many children, arrived in a leaky 25-metre wooden boat, which somehow had eluded all surveillance and was noticed only when it was some hundreds of metres off shore.

The immigrants said they were from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan but many think they are economic refugees from North Africa. They were taken to the local immigrants centre, which can hold at most 190 people, and will later be transferred to other centres in Italy.

Just like in Malta, the arrival of so many illegal immigrants, even though they are later transferred to the mainland, is exasperating the residents of Lampedusa, especially now that the tourism season is beginning. There have been some acts of intolerance: the tyres of Medicines Sans Frontieres were punctured as were those belonging to UNHCR.

The mayor complained to the media that with people in the Italian government speaking of pardoning illegal immigrants, many more may be attracted to try their luck.

Besides, petrol costs more on this island than in mainland Italy and the island does not have adequate hospital care. It was this last straw thay made the mayor suggest that Lampedusa may be better if annexed by Malta.