Senate motion calls for Mare Nostrum 'exit strategy'

(ANSA) - Rome, June 11 - A motion under discussion at the Italian Senate on Wednesday calls for the government to look into ways to move beyond the search-and-rescue operation Mare Nostrum.
    The motion, lodged by the government majority, notes that the operation was a "necessary response to the emergency but can in no way constitute a definitive solution". It would require that the government draw up an 'exit strategy'.
    Mare Nostrum (Our Sea, the Romans' term for the Med) was launched in October 2013, spearheaded by 782 Italian Navy personnel aboard a flotilla of vessels supported by carabinieri, coast guard, police and air force units after hundreds of migrants lost their lives earlier that month when two boats sunk not far from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Thousands of lives have been saved by the operation in a period seeing ever more undocumented migrants attempting to flee conflicts by crossing the Mediterranean in unsafe sea vessels. Almost 40,000 migrants landed on Italy's shores in the first five months of this year - almost as many as the total for all of 2013.