According to a report from the Italian newspaper La Sicilia, approximately 2,000 individuals arrived on the island of Lampedusa over the course of the weekend, with 1,326 of them arriving on Saturday 6 May alone. Of these migrants, 499 departed from various Libyan cities including Zouara, Sabratha, Tripoli, and Tadjoura, aboard seven different boats.

According to Italian journalist Angela Caponnetto's posts on social media, the migrants are believed to have departed from the Cyrenaica region in eastern Libya. Caponnetto also noted that the influx of arrivals occurred shortly after a meeting between Italian Prime Minister and General Khalifa Haftar, who holds authority over eastern Libya, which took place in Rome on May 4, 2023. The main topic of the meeting was the problem of migrants leaving Libya for Italy.

Italy is facing a sharp increase in migrant arrivals from Tunisia and Libya, which led Rome to declare a state of emergency on 11 April. The authorities on the island of Lampedusa, which are in the front line, must take measures to facilitate the arrivals and transfers of exiles. The Italian Interior Ministry recently asked the island to increase the capacity of its reception centre from 850 to 1,250 places. A measure that will be financed by the five million euros urgently released by the Italian government to "decongest" the hotspot, which is about to implode.