Italy declares state of emergency

Two pregnant women and 361 children were on board the crowded ship

ROME, Italy -- Italy has declared a state of emergency over the recent surge in illegal immigrants flooding into the country.

The move, on Wednesday, came 48 hours after nearly 1,000 Kurdish refugees landed in Sicily in a rusting boat.

Regional Affairs Minister Enrico La Loggia said the move was necessary to deal with an expected wave of arrivals in the weeks ahead.

La Repubblica newspaper quoted an Interior Ministry source on Tuesday as saying officials believed up to 50,000 illegal immigrants were preparing to head for Europe, via Italy, in the coming weeks.

"This is a move to try to tackle a very large and worrying phenomenon," La Loggia told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

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"There are probably other arrivals on the way and we need to be prepared."

More than 20,000 illegal immigrants entered the country in 2001, mostly from North Africa, Turkey or Asia and Albania.

The declaration will release funds for temporary shelters and help speed up the processing of immigrants.

Earlier, a senior Italian minister described Italy as the launching point for illegal immigrants to enter Europe.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Claudio Scajola said emergency powers would be unveiled on Wednesday to help Italy's regions deal with a fresh onslaught of immigrants.

"The instability created in the Middle East by September 11 means that many more people will decide to set off in search of a better life. Italy is the natural entry point for the West, an aircraft carrier from which to take off," he said.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition came to power on a platform that included promises to crack down on illegal immigration and expulsions have increased by about 30 percent since the government came to power last June.

Scajola urged greater co-operation among European countries, saying many of the Kurds wanted to travel on to other EU countries.

The declaration comes after the 1,700-tonne Monica, crammed with 928 Kurdish refugees -- including 361 children -- arrived off the southern Italian coast on Monday.

It was the biggest single arrival of immigrants in Italy for five years and the exhausted and dehydrated immigrants are now being housed at a refugee centre in Bari.

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi urged compassion: "This wave of immigration born out of poverty certainly causes problems but it appears indispensable to fill the void in the workforce left by a society which lives happily, and longer than before, but in which few children are born.

"In emergencies, the humanitarian spirit must prevail above all else."

But hardline Reform Minister Umberto Bossi said the new arrivals should be sent back to where they came from and called for a clampdown against illegal immigrants.

"If we aren't firm, immigration will be uncontrollable," he told reporters.

Bossi -- who heads the anti-immigration Northern League party -- said the arrival of the Monica showed the need for urgent anti-immigration legislation to repatriate immigrants who are not legally employed.

Many of those on board needed hospital treatment

He also said Italy should demand that other European Union member-states share the costs of transporting would-be immigrants back to their country of origin.

Meanwhile, it emerged that the Monica has used 11 names and seven flags of convenience since 1988.

According to an article to appear in Lloyd's List on Wednesday, the cargo ship was until March 3 known as Lujin and still appears under that name on the EU's Equasis database.

Built in Budapest circa 1975, Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit says the ship has traded under the names Blue Sea, St Elias, Cynthia, Samar, Sanamar, Kasanava, Geni, Nagham, Lujin and Monica since 1988.

During that period she has been registered with seven flags: Malta, Honduras, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Belize, Sao Tome & Principe, and Tonga, Lloyd's List said.