Italy's Mare Nostrum
Mediterranean migrant rescue programme "will be closed" and will
not, as the EU has suggested, run in tandem with Frontex's new
Triton operation, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said
Thursday. "An upcoming cabinet meeting will decree the
conclusion of the operation" which has saved some 140,000 lives
in a year, Alfano said. Mare Nostrum (The Roman name for 'Our
Sea'), was launched after 368 migrants drowned off the
stepping-stone island of Lampedusa a year ago. Earlier Thursday
the EU said Triton would "not replace" Mare Nostrum.
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