Another 10 deaths of migrants and
the arrival of 1,000 more in the Mediterranean Wednesday stirred
emotions and spurred the European Union to pledge greater
efforts to save the lives of those who try the desperate
crossing from North Africa.
The leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, Matteo
Salvini, pounced on the deaths to say that Italian officials'
hands were "covered with blood" because of their alleged
encouragement of people paying unscrupulous smugglers to aim to
achieve better lives in Europe.
Close to 1,000 refugees were heading to Sicily after
rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean in which the
Italian authorities also recovered the 10 dead bodies.
The coast guard said Wednesday that a total of 941
migrants were saved in operations it had coordinated in the
previous 24 hours.
Coast Guard ship Dattilo was carrying 121 people saved
from an overturned boat and the bodies of 10 people who died
during the incident, plus another 318 migrants rescued in a
separate operation.
The Dattilo was heading to the southern Sicilian port of
Augusta.
Another vessel was carrying 319 people to another Sicilian
port, Porto Empedocle, while a tanker holding 183 was on the way
to Pozzallo.
Northern League leader Salvini said that the hands of
Premier Matteo Renzi and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano were
soiled with blood after the latest migrant-boat disaster.
Salvini argues that, by rescuing migrants, the Italian
authorities are encouraging human traffickers and making the
situation worse.
"Another 10 deaths and 900 illegal immigrants ready to
land," Salvini said.
"Pockets are full and hands are dirty with blood in Rome
and Brussels.
"Stop the departures, stop the deaths, stop the invasion.
Renzi and Alfano are dangerous for the Italians and for the
immigrants".
Flavio Di Giacomo, the Italy spokesperson for the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said talk by
Salvini and others of an "invasion" was misplaced.
"You have to remember that the 170,000 migrants who
arrived last year came to an area populated by 500 million
people," he said, adding that "the major flow is only in the
Sicilian Channel.
But he warned that the influx of migrants spelled "a
humanitarian and operational emergency".
European Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris
Avramopoulos said it was no good passing the buck to the
European Union after the latest migrant disaster in the southern
Mediterranean.
The death of 10 refugees has reignited debate about the
effectiveness of the Triton programme, which is coordinated by
EU agency Frontex and replaced Italy's better-funded Mare
Nostrum search-and-rescue operation last year.
"Enough already of the politics of passing the buck,"
Avramopoulos said.
"Let's have a clear, realistic attitude about what the EU
can do and what it cannot do.
"Frontex is not the EU's border guard. If we want a system
of border guards, we have to create it.
"If we want Frontex to do more, we have to give it more
resources".
EC Vice-President Frans Timmermans echoed those
sentiments, saying the EU member states must be ready to take
responsibility for sharing the burden of the migrant crisis.
"Migration is a problem that concerns all the member
states," Timmermans said. "It's no longer Mare Nostrum (Our
Sea), but Europa Nostra (Our Europe)".
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