ROME, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The Italian government promised Wednesday to remove thousands of African immigrants from the island of Lampedusa after detainees rioted.
The violence began late Tuesday with a fire at the reception center, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. On Wednesday, the mayor was locked in his office, a baseball bat at the ready, while protests continued outside.
Italian officials said 200 migrants had already been moved to a military base in Sicily and the rest would be transferred from Lampedusa in the next few days.
Lampedusa, a scrap of Italian territory closer to Tunisia than to Sicily, has received more than 50,000 migrants since January when large protests began in North Africa and the Middle East.
"I say to the humanitarian organizations -- you have no right to accuse the people of Lampedusa of racism," Mayor Dino De Rubeis said.
"I am in the middle of a war," he added. "The country should immediately send helicopters and ships to transfer the Tunisians who are wandering the island after setting the center alight."
