article_snippet.sent: Rome (CNN)A destination for the destitute, Sicily is the "promised land" for thousands of migrants and refugees making the desperate journey from North Africa to Europe's Mediterranean coast.
article_snippet.sent: More than 10,000 people have arrived from Libya since last weekend alone, according to the Italian Coast Guard.
article_snippet.sent: But what makes the current influx different is the increase in numbers and the absence of control from the ports of embarkation, specifically those in Libya, because when Moammar Gadhafi was in control, Moammar Gadhafi also controlled the flow of migrant ships.
article_snippet.sent: For a time, almost all migrant arrivals came from Tunisia, just 70 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
article_snippet.sent: Because Italy sent most of those migrants who did not qualify for political asylum back to Tunisia, the flow eventually tapered off.
article_snippet.sent: But after Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown, the flow of migrants from Libya exploded again: the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Rome told CNN that more than 140,000 migrants arrived from the North Africa coast in 2011.
article_snippet.sent: Once migrants arrive in Italy, migrants are supposed to be processed for political asylum and monitored until it is granted or denied, but Italy has been sanctioned by the European Union for not fingerprinting new arrivals.
article_snippet.sent: By law, Italy has to take care of new arrivals, but many have no intention of staying in the country, and few of the reception centers are gated, meaning migrants can come and go as migrants please.
article_snippet.sent: And with no physical border controls between Italy and other European countries, other European countries can then disperse across the continent.
article_snippet.sent: Moutassem Yazbek, 27, an IT specialist who worked for six years in Dubai, arrived in Sicily in December on board a smuggler's boat.
article_snippet.sent: He told CNN He was never fingerprinted in Italy, and eventually made it to Germany where He is studying to learn the language and find work.