Influential Catholic
weekly magazine Famiglia Cristiana on Tuesday appealed for a
return to Italy's humanitarian sea search and rescue operation
Mare Nostrum, a day after 29 migrants were found frozen to death
on board a boat off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
"Let's go back to Mare Nostrum, let's avoid further
tragedies," said the periodical on its website amid concern over
the ability to save lives of the smaller Triton operation run by
the EU's border agency Frontex that replaced the Italian mission
last November.
"The latest deaths off Lampedusa have shown that the Triton
operation is not enough to prevent new victims at sea," the
magazine said.
"The refugees continue to depart from African shores with
or without rescue boats that intercept them in the
Mediterranean," Famiglia Cristiana continued.
"If we want to tackle the tragedy of migration we need to
start from a fixed point: humanity, the duty to save men, women,
elderly, children from death at sea. Everything else comes
afterwards. Otherwise it is only dangerous demagogy."
Tens of thousands of migrants were rescued at sea under the
Mare Nostrum operation, which was launched in autumn 2013 in
response to a double boat tragedy off Lampedusa in which over
300 migrants lost their lives.
Supporters said it was necessary to guarantee the safety of
people fleeing poverty and conflict at the mercy of unscrupulous
traffickers and unseaworthy vessels, while critics claimed it
merely invited more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea
crossing in search of a batter life in Europe.
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