Federico Geremicca
Federico Geremicca (b. 1956, Naples) began writing for L'Unità in 1982. In 1990 he joined La Repubblica, first at the home affairs service then as director of the Sicily bureau. He joined La Stampa in 1999, since which time he has been deputy editor in chief and head of the Turinese daily's Rome office.
Updated: 14 February 2011
Since the middle of February, the Italian island of Lampedusa has welcomed several thousand migrants who have made the crossing from Tunisia. Battling with bad weather and without political support, local people have made the best of limited resources in their attempt to deal with the situation. La Stampa reports from an island on a war footing. 
With the collapse of the Ben Ali regime, thousands of Tunisians have caught the boat to Europe. Their landing on the nearby Italian island of Lampedusa and the chaos this has caused foreshadows what could happen on the southern shores of the EU if the migration controls worked out with North African countries were to vanish, worries an alarmed La Stampa columnist.