ITALY-IMMIGRATION – TELAM Agency
The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, today considered it “necessary” for the Government to adopt a new “security decree” in September to contain the arrival of migrants, after record numbers have been reached this year.
“Italy cannot be the arrival point for immigrants from all over the world,” said Salvini, during a statement in which he called on the European Union (EU) to “move” and “wake up” to come to the aid of the transalpine country, local news agency AdnKronos reported today.
“Every year we send billions (of euros) to Brussels” and “the defense of the borders must be a European priority,” claimed Salvini, who already during his first stage in the Executive promoted an unprecedented tightening of migration policy, which generated questions on the part of organizations defending Human Rights, reported the agency Europa Press.
Salvini boasted of having “won lawsuits” at that time, when he promoted a doctrine of closed ports that limited the room for maneuver of NGOs that rescue migrants and refugees in central Mediterranean waters.
So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have reached Italian shores, according to data from the Interior Ministry.
Yesterday, the humanitarian ship ‘Ocean Viking’, managed by the European NGO based in France SOS Mediterranée, rescued more than 400 migrants who came from various boats in international waters off the coast of Libya and Tunisia, reported from the organization.
After more than ten hours of operations, the rescue teams were able to assist 272 people, including 32 unaccompanied minors, nine babies and five disabled people.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 2,013 people lost their lives trying to cover the central Mediterranean route, considered the most dangerous in the world.
Source: Ambito
