Italian authorities on Friday sought to relocate thousands of people after record numbers arrived on the small Mediterranean island of Lampedusa by boat in recent days. 

The Italian Red Cross director said that some 700 people left the island on Friday morning on ferries and police vessels bound for Sicily and the Italian mainland. 

Another 2,500 people were expected to be relocated in the course of the day, director Rosario Volastro said in a video posted to social media.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross said around 3,800 people were in the so-called "Hotspot" refugee reception area on the island that is only really equipped with numbers roughly 10 times smaller. 

"Thanks to the over 130 operators and volunteers of the Italian Red Cross, who are doing beyond the impossible, despite the difficult situation, to guarantee meals and assistance to everyone," Volastro said. 

UN urges rapid relocations, says many factors behind surge

The UN's refugee agency urged Italy's government to make haste with the relocation operation. 

The director of the UNHCR, Matthew Saltmarsh, said he expected the boat transfers to continue over the weekend. 

"It's imperative to move people off the island because of the resources there, the capacity is so limited," Saltmarsh said. 

He said it was not easy to pinpoint the reason behind the sharp increase in numbers in recent days, citing a series of factors that might all contribute.

Calm sea conditions and clement September weather, the economic and social turbulence in Tunisia and Libya, and the conflict in Sudan could all be in play, he said. 

Saltmarsh also appealed for other countries in the EU to do more to help countries like Italy, a very common first arrival point for people crossing the Mediterranean headed north for Europe. 

"It can't just be on those frontline states like Italy that receive the initial arrivals to have to accommodate them for the longer term," Saltmarsh said. "We think that now's the time for other countries, other states, other regions to try to support the Italians and to support the people of Lampedusa." 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the pressure of migrants arriving in the country "unsustainable" and said the European Union needed to intervene.

"The migratory pressure that Italy has been experiencing since the beginning of the year is unsustainable," she said in a video message broadcast, adding that it sprang from the "difficult international situation" in Africa.

France announces closer cooperation

Under an EU deal known as the Dublin Accord, asylum-seekers should register for asylum in the first EU member state they arrive in and far more often than not, that country should process their applications.

Countries like Italy and Greece have long argued that this puts a disproportionate burden on them. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he would work with Italy to try to find more support from other EU member states. He also hinted at trying to devise a scheme all 27 members would participate in, something that has been tried in vain in Brussels before.  

"I want to say very sincerely to all our Italian friends that I believe it is the responsibility of the European Union, the entire European Union, to stand by Italy," Macron told reporters on Friday. 

Macron's interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, wrote on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that he had spoken with his Italian counterpart on the issue. 

"We agreed to work together within the European Union in the coming hours to strongly reinforce the prevention of immigrant departures and the fight against people traffickers," he said, in a message seemingly more focused on prevention than accommodation. 

Germany defends suspension of voluntary accord

The large numbers on Lampedusa have coincided with the German government this week suspending participation in a voluntary EU scheme to take some people from frontline countries like Italy. 

The government in Berlin argues that the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni, whose party campaigned on a tougher line on migration, is subsequently refusing to take back people it is obliged to under the Dublin Accord. 

According to the Interior Ministry, of 2,700 such applications to Italy, only 10 have been approved. 

Nevertheless, German migrant assistance NGOs on Friday criticized the decision, with the Sea Eye rescue group calling it "disastrous" and Pro Asyl saying it was "very unwise and irresponsible." 

Analyst: 'Immoral' EU deal with Tunisia made situation worse

Meanwhile, former German government migration adviser and the founder of the European Stability Initiative think tank, Gerald Knaus, told DW on Friday that a recent deal brokered by the EU and Italy with Tunisia "has actually made things worse." 

"More people have left Tunisia since the agreement and human rights violations in Tunisia have actually intensified, which means that most sub-Sahran Africans have an interest to try to flee with smugglers to Europe," Knaus said. 

"So, current EU strategy is not working, and it would be very good to finally have a realistic and serious debate on what might work."

Knaus also dismissed the criticism of Berlin's actions this week as "one of those red herrings" and a "totally meaningless" debate, arguing that Italy was disingenuous to portray itself as shouldering a larger burden. 

"Solidarity will not be increased by transferring 1,000 people from Italy to Germany, when last year, Italy gave protection to 25,000 people and Germany gave protection to 150,000 people," Knaus said. "People distribute themselves. If Italy takes the people from Lampedusa to Italy, they will not stay in Italy. Everyone knows that."

Knaus argued that what was required was agreements with safe third countries in Africa to take people hoping to cross to Europe by boat. 

"What we need is a way to stop people getting into these boats that doesn't rely on immoral deals with Libya or Tunisia. The only way to do that is to have partners: safe countries on the other side of the Mediterranean," Knaus said, without mentioning potential partners or how having them would stop the efforts to smuggle people across the Mediterranean.

msh/sms (AFP, DPA, Reuters, epd, KNA)