First 19 refugees leave Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, October 9 - The first group of asylum seekers to be transferred from Italy as part of the European Commission's redistribution plan departed on Friday, when a finance police aeroplane carrying 19 Eritrean refugees took off from Rome's Ciampino Airport heading for Sweden. The group, which included five women, arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa a few days ago. "The flight that has just taken off is a symbol of victory, the victory of Europe that can show solidarity and be responsible, and it's a defeat for those like (anti-immigrant Northern League party leader Matteo) Salvini, who bet everything against Italy and against Europe," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said after seeing the refugees off along with European Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.
    The EU has agreed to redistribute some 160,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Italy and Greece, whose outlying islands are the first landfall for the majority of refugees and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean in often unseaworthy boats in a bid to flee war and destitution in Africa and the Middle East.
    "Over the next few weeks Italy is ready to transfer another 100 asylum seekers to Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries that have said they are willing to receive them," Alfano said. "Over 40,000 will go in two years". Michele, a 26-year-old who was among the group of refugees, said that he was "seeking peace and serenity, which I didn't have in Eritrea". As part of the EU plan, Italy and Greece have agreed to set up hotspots to register asylum seekers and speed up the handling of claims, after allegations from other States that these were not being handled effectively and too many arrivals were being lost track of.
    "The asylum seekers do not decide which country they want to go to," Avramopoulos told reporters.
    "This is our decision and it they don't accept it, they have to return to where they come from".
    Premier Matteo Renzi's government also successfully lobbied to have funding for the EU's Triton patrol-and-rescue mission tripled.
    The aim is to try to prevent more migrant boat deaths after a long series of disasters and mass drowings in the southern Mediterranean.
    The EU has also launched a naval mission targeting human traffickers off the coast of Libya that Italy called for.
    The Sophia mission, led by Italian admiral Enrico Credendino and featuring six military ships from several countries kicked off on Wednesday.
    The United Nations Security Council voted to give its blessing to the operation on Friday.