Italy: EC's Avramopoulos and Luxembourg FM Asselborn visit refugee camp in Lampedusa

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn visited a refugee camp in Lampedusa, on Friday, to examine the effectiveness of the EU's response to the refugee crisis first hand. Avramopoulos spoke with local Italian politicians, met with the refugee camp's workers and delivered a speech to the refugees in the centre. The commissioner's visit comes as the EU begins to roll out its relocation scheme, wherein which 160,000 refugees will be redistributed around EU member states. Earlier on Friday Avramopoulos was present as 20 Eritreans set off from Rome to Sweden, the first to move under the programme. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean and landed on European shores in 2015 alone, with southern Europe seeing the majority of arrivals. According to UNHCR figures, Italy is currently host to an estimated 129,000 new arrivals, while the United Nations (UN) estimate that around 2,400 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.