Night after night they huddle together in groups, desperately trying to stay warm. The lucky ones scavenge blankets and plastic sheeting. Others sleep on the hillsides, waiting for help to arrive. While the world focuses its attention on events in the Middle East and North Africa, a humanitarian crisis is under way in Europe. This is Lampedusa, a tiny piece of normally unspoilt Italian paradise in the southern Mediterranean that has become a fetid refugee camp for thousands of desperate people fleeing turmoil and poverty. Located closer to Tunisia than to Italy, Lampedusa has long been accustomed to a trickle of refugees landing on its shores. But nothing could have prepared it for the onslaught that has overrun the population. Over the past two months, an estimated 20,000 migrants have flocked to the island in an exodus that has, until recently, been ignored by the Italian government and the rest of Europe.

Pray: for the people of Lampedusa, Italy and the EU as they handle the many refugees that have invaded the island.

More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/europes-twilight-zone-2260110.html