Mass migrant departures from Africa
are picking up again after a slight respite, with about 1,400
migrants rescued from the Strait of Sicily in recent days, and
11 bodies recovered on Sunday.
Meanwhile, French police stopped four Italians during an
anti-fascist demonstration on Sunday that began in Italy near
the border with France and ended in the area of Briancon on the
French side.
Interior Ministry figures, which are not updated with the
latest arrivals, show that 7,814 migrants have arrived in Italy
thus far in 2018, a 79% drop compared to the same period in
2017, when 36,871 migrants had arrived.
April marked the 10th consecutive month of a decrease in
arrivals.
Arrivals showed a marked increase in recent days, however,
with the majority coming from Libya.
In terms of search and rescue in the Mediterranean, the
Italian Navy and Coast Guard are active as well as the Libyan
Navy and Coast Guard, the EU mission EUNAVFOR Med, and NGOs.
On Sunday, the Libyan Navy rescued 263 migrants in two
operations off the coasts of Zliten and Sabratha, the latter of
which included the recovery of 11 bodies.
On Monday morning there was a shipwreck off the coast of
Libya, where 63 people were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard
and the NGO Proactiva Open Arms.
Also on Monday morning, the ship Aquarius - which is being
rented by the NGO SOS Mediterranee in partnership with Doctors
Without Borders - arrived at the Italian port of Trapani with
537 migrants aboard, including 85 women, 125 children and three
newborns.
On Sunday in Pozzallo (Ragusa), 79 Tunisians arrived on a
wooden boat, and authorities stopped the driver, allegedly a
smuggler.
An investigation revealed that smugglers had "promised" the
crossing with an offer of "bring a friend and travel for free".
Meanwhile, authorities are trying to calm tensions following
Sunday's march organised by the movement 'Briser les frontieres'
(Break the Borders), aimed at "freeing the borders from
fascists", held at the Italy-France border in the Alps.
The march was organised after far-right militants of the
Generation Identitaire movement erected plastic netting along
the border stretching hundreds of metres to prevent the passage
of undocumented foreigners.
Among the Italians stopped by French police (three men and
one woman), there was an anarchist from Cagliari and an
anarchist with ties to the far-left militant Askatasuna centre
in Turin.
Political commentary soon followed, with League leader Matteo
Salvini weighing in.
"Every once in a while, a journalist tells me 'the Austrians
are bad, they control their borders and expel illegals'. They're
not bad, it's we who have the government of complicit cretins,
because we should be doing the exact same thing," Salvini said.
Edoardo Patriarca of the Democratic Party (PD) said Europe
"has already known iron curtains and walls".
"Is Salvini targeting migration because he wants to flirt
with that part of the 5-Star Movement that spoke, wrongly, about
the NGOs providing taxis at sea?" Patriarca said, referring to a
comment allegedly made by anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio, which Di Maio denied.
Ylenja Lucaselli of the rightwing Brothers of Italy party
called for "attention to the rise in arrivals", which she said
"represents, in any case, a danger for security and our
country's social cohesion".
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