Italian government defends sea rescues of migrants

(ANSA) - Rome, June 12 - Italy is "proud" of its sea search-and-rescue operation for migrants and has no plans to stop these, cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio said Thursday.
    "We are proud of Mare Nostrum (our sea), which has rescued 39,000 people so far," Delrio told the Senate.
    That has almost exceeded the total number of migrants for all of 2013.
    "I would like to point out that 80% of them have the prerequisites to be considered asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants", Delrio added.
    He was responding to a Senate motion calling for an exit strategy from Mare Nostrum, which they say "in no way constitutes a definitive solution" to the migrant problem.
    The government has come under fire over the rescue operation, which some opposition parties say is encouraging human traffickers to increase illegal crossings.
    Delrio said the government of Premier Matteo Renzi is working to get greater support for the rescue missions as well as subsequent care of migrants once they arrive in Italy, often the first port for migrants heading for other parts of Europe.
    "We are absolutely in agreement with many elements contained in the motions, on the need to improve and go beyond Mare Nostrum," said Delrio.
    "We must make it a fully European effort, and no longer just an emergency mission", Delrio added.
    Mare Nostrum was established last October, after almost 400 people drowned in two migrant boat shipwrecks off the coast of Lampedusa. The Italian government has struggled to house and care for the tens of thousands of migrants who are arriving, and agencies including the United Nations have said that Monday that Italy must be given more help to cope.
    Renzi has accused the European Union of looking the other way and not doing enough to help Italy after dozens of people were killed in two new migrant disasters in May.
    "Europe explains everything about how to catch swordfish, but it turns its head when we go to rescue people in trouble," he said.