English: Between January and August, nearly 20,000 people made the perilous overland journey to the coasts of Libya or Tunisia, to cross the Mediterranean and land on Italy's southernmost territory, the islet of Lampedusa. Many have already spent weeks, months and even years on the road and once on the coast, must entrust what little money they have left to the local criminal syndicates that traffic in human beings, and smaller and ever more dangerous boats. On land, after triage by the Medecins Sans Frontieres crew, the new arrivals are quickly loaded onto buses and ferried to the reception centre rebuilt a year ago with European Union subsidies, where migrants are given clean clothes, shoes and a telephone card. They are photographed, identified (if possible) and after a few days' rest, are sent, by air, ferry or hydrofoil to one of Italy's mainland centres, where they await the process of applications for papers and asylum.