Europe washing its 'hands of migrants'

(ANSA) - Rome, April 17 - Europe is "elegantly washing its hands" of a migrant "drama which will be ever more unbearable by Italy", the secretary-general of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), Msgr Nunzio Galantino, told Vatican Radio Friday. Italy is bearing the brunt of a migrant emergency in the Mediterranean and is asking the EU to more fairly share the burden of rescuing and receiving migrants.
    Italy's year-long Mare Nostrum mission, which ended last November, scoured the Med for migrants while the EU's replacement Triton mission patrols borders and only goes after struggling boats when alerts go out.
    Some 170,000 migrants reached Italy last year while about 23,000 have come so far this year compared to about 21,000 in the same period last year, a rise of about 10%.
    About half a million migrants are reportedly poised to set off from the lawless shores of Libya.
    Migrant centres in Italy have overflowed and migrants and asylum seekers are being housed in hotels, sparking resistance from regional governments and the outspoken criticism of political parties like the anti-immigrant Northern League, which is rising in the polls. The human toll of the crisis is also enormous.
    There have been a series of migrant-boat disasters and on Thursday Italian police said witnesses had told them that a group of Muslims threw 12 Christians overboard in a fight on the way to Sicily.
    Some 950 migrants and asylum seekers have died in the Mediterranean this year alone, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday.
    European Union sources said Friday that they could "see" the limits of the Triton sea operation in the Mediterranean, but added that there was no consensus among the 28 member states on beefing it up to help cope with the migrant crisis. The EU sources said that "there is not yet the collective will for a stronger collective maritime initiative" ahead of Monday's meeting of European foreign ministers focusing on Libya.
    The chaos in Libya is also a problem for Italy in other ways.
    The Italian Defence chief of staff said Friday that Navy personnel have boarded and taken control of an Italian fishing boat that Libyans tried to seize overnight. The attempt to impound the boat was carried out with a tug, "presumably belonging to Libyan security forces," the department said. It said the incident took place some 90 kilometres northwest of Misrata. The boat, the Mazara del Vallo-based Airone, reportedly had seven sailors aboard, three Italians from Sicily and four Tunisians.