Priority is saving migrant lives Ban tells Renzi - update 2

(ANSA) - New York, April 27 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Italian Premier Matteo Renzi that the priority in the Mediterranean migrant emergency was to save lives, the UN said Monday. After discussing his "concerns" on the crisis with Renzi and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, Ban stressed that "the authorities must focus on saving lives," a UN spokesperson said. The UN secretary-general met with Renzi and Mogherini aboard the San Giusto vessel of the Italian Navy, involved in search and rescue operations in the Strait of Sicily. "I want to physically show him what Italy is doing", Renzi said before the meeting..
    Italian vessels, together with those of Triton and private merchant ships, are dealing with the emergency caused by mass departures from Libya with over 25,000 people reported to have landed this year. Rome has obtained from the EU summit a three-fold increase of funding devoted to operations by European border agency Frontex and an exploratory mandate awarded to Mogherini for a European mission to identify and destroy boats before they are used by human traffickers. The latter is one of the most delicate issues at stake, on which the involvement of the UN is necessary. Italy, Renzi confirmed over the past few days, "has asked France, Great Britain and Spain for support in a UN resolution on Libya". The resolution would be aimed at giving coverage to what has been defined not as military intervention but as an "international police operation" aimed at destroying vessels used by human traffickers.
    Another key part of the Italian strategy is the involvement of countries of origin and transit of migration where centers to process would-be migrants to determine who has a right to be welcomed by Europe could be set up. In this case as well, the involvement of the UN through the UNHCR would be key.
    Ban for his part, in a couple of interviews, has stressed his opposition to military intervention in Libya. He has noted that it is crucial for everybody to focus on saving lives, including in the Libyan area of search and rescue operations, and to ensure the asylum rights of the growing number of people fleeing war worldwide.
    Ban has also noted that there are "no alternatives" to dialogue on Libya. Special UN representative Bernardino Leon and his team are continuing to work with the Libyan sides involved to help them reach together a spirit of compromise, he has added.