More than 34,000 asylum seekers and migrants have landed in Italy since the start of the year, up from some 25,500 in the same period last year, data from Italy’s interior ministry shows.

Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes into Europe expect more than 150,000 arrivals this year as food shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East.

The Italian navy has begun relocating hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa after its refugee identification centre was overwhelmed with new arrivals.

Aljazeera.