Berlusconi's FI joins criticism of migrant-rescue policy

(ANSA) - Rome, April 22 - Criticism of the government's immigration policy intensified Tuesday as the party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi came down hard against the Mare Nostrum surveillance and rescue program. "It's overstepping its humanitarian scope and becoming a free and guaranteed ride for any undocumented migrant," said Deputy Senate Speaker Maurizio Gasparri and Senate Whip Paolo Romani, both from the center-right Forza Italia party. Some 1,149 migrants have been rescued by Italian Navy vessels since Sunday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, authorities said Tuesday.
    The rescues came as Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said that Italy must suspend such operations because they are too expensive and represent an "invasion" of Italian shores. In an interview with ANSA Monday, Salvini said his party, an off-and-on ally of Berlusconi's, will present a proposal to the Lower House and the Senate to suspend the Mare Nostrum sea operation that the anti-immigrant League says costs about 300,000 euros daily. "That will end the financing of (human) smugglers and the invasion of our shores," said Salvini, who added that he is planning an election campaign visit to Sicily.
    All of the weekend rescue efforts were made via the Mare Nostrum surveillance and rescue program established after the deaths of some 400 people in two migrant-boat disasters near Lampedusa in October 2013. Last week, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants have already landed on Italy's coasts - an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013. Speaking before a committee on the country's borders, Alfano stressed that the number of incoming migrants was on pace "to reach the record levels of 2011, when more than 62,000 people entered". Salvini, whose party has taken strong stances against immigration, called last month on allies across Europe to join the League in fighting "mass immigration" in the lead-up to May's European Parliament elections. Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled last year from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa. In response to the rising levels of dangerous migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that Italy must have more financial help. The UNHCR has said that the Mediterranean is one of the busiest seas in the world, and urged European Union members to work together on solutions to the migrant situation, which is expected to worsen.
    Meanwhile on Monday, authorities said that more than 300 migrants fled from an emergency holding centre for migrants near Ragusa which, like other centres on Sicily, have been overcrowded by a steady stream of illegal arrivals to Europe by sea.