[12] In 1553, Barbary pirates from North Africa under the command of the Ottoman Empire raided Lampedusa and carried off 1,000 captives into slavery.

[citation needed] In 1565, Don García de Toledo made a brief stop at Lampedusa while leading a relief force to break the Great Siege of Malta.

In subsequent centuries, the Hospitaller fleet which was based in Malta sometimes used Lampedusa's harbour as a shelter from bad weather or from corsairs.

[12] In 1667, the island was given to Ferdinand Tomasi of Palermo, who acquired the title of Prince of Lampedusa from King Charles II of Spain.

[citation needed] In the late 18th century, the Order of St. John maintained a small establishment on Lampedusa, which included a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

A structure known as marabuto, probably a mausoleum commemorating a member of the Marabouts, also existed on the island at this time, and it was visited by many Muslim devotees.

[12] A royal commission stated in an 1812 report that there would be considerable difficulties in turning the island (together with Linosa and Pantelleria) into a supply base for Malta.

The Governor of Malta, Sir Thomas Maitland, visited Lampedusa and found that Fernandez was running a business venture, so on 15 September 1814 he announced the withdrawal of British troops stationed on the island.

[citation needed] In 1861, the island became part of the Kingdom of Italy, but the new Italian government limited its activities there to building a penal colony.

[citation needed] During the Second World War, the island was Axis territory, held by a small Italian garrison.

Despite its proximity to Allied-held Malta and North Africa, the island did not see any military engagements until June 1943 when, as a precursor to the Allied invasion of Sicily, the island was secured without resistance in Operation Corkscrew by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lookout and ninety-five men of the 2nd Battalion the Coldstream Guards.

[15] A second unofficial claim has also been made regarding the capitulation of the island, when earlier that same day elements of the garrison had also attempted to surrender in unusual circumstances when Sergeant Sydney Cohen, the pilot of a Royal Air Force Fairey Swordfish aircraft landed having run low on fuel and suffering problems with his compass.

[citation needed] In 1972, part of the western side of the island became a United States Coast Guard LORAN-C transmitter station.

On April 15, 1986, Libya fired two Scuds at the Lampedusa navigation station, in retaliation for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi, and the alleged death of Colonel Gaddafi's adopted daughter.

[19][20] On 4 January 1989, U.S. Navy aircraft from the carrier USS John F. Kennedy shot down two Libyan fighters approximately 200 km (110 nmi) from the island.

[citation needed] Since the early 2000s, Lampedusa, the European territory closest to Libya, has become a prime transit point for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia wanting to enter Europe.

[24] In 2009, the overcrowded conditions at the island's temporary immigrant reception centre came under criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

[28] The situation has caused division within the EU, the French government regarding most of the arrivals as economic migrants rather than refugees in fear of persecution.

Reasons for migration varied, but the Irish Examiner listed a worsening of the "socioeconomic situation in Tunisia" and fleeing danger or persecution.

From a structural point of view, Lampedusa belongs to the Pelagian Block, a foreland at the northern edge of the African Plate, and is inside the Sicily Channel.

[40] Lampedusa has a subtropical semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) characterized by very warm, almost rainless and humid summers, very mild and frost-free winters, a powerful seasonal lag and a small diurnal temperature range.

[citation needed] The Isola dei Conigli (literally "Rabbit Island"), close to the south coast of Lampedusa, is one of the last remaining egg-laying sites in Italy for the loggerhead sea turtle, which is endangered throughout the Mediterranean.

The beach and the neighbouring island are part of a nature reserve: here the singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno spent his vacations, and died in 1994.

[44] Waters nearby Lampedusa are the only area in the Mediterranean with sightings of pregnant great white sharks and newly born individuals.

[45] Recent studies revealed that the waters of Lampedusa are a wintering feeding ground for the Mediterranean group of fin whales.