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.
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