(ANSA-AFP) - UNITED NATIONS, SEP 21 - Italy's prime minister
on Wednesday urged the United Nations to launch a "global war
without mercy" against migrant smugglers, after a surge of
arrivals on the island of Lampedusa. Addressing the UN General
Assembly, right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni said that
Italy, which next year heads the Group of Seven wealthy
democracies, was ready to lead efforts against the "slave
traders of the third millennium." "Can an organization like this
which reaffirms in its founding document the faith in the
dignity and worth of human beings turn a blind eye to this
tragedy?" she asked. "I believe it is the duty of this
organization to reject any hypocritical approach to this issue
and wage a global war without mercy against the traffickers of
human beings," she said. "To do so we need to work together at
every level. Italy plans to be on the frontline on this issue."
Meloni, who heads the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, took
office in part on pledges to crack down on migration. Some 8,500
people landed on Italy's southern island of Lampedusa from 199
boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the
UN's International Organization for Migration. The group is
largely made up of people from sub-Saharan Africa who have gone
to Tunisia, which is suffering from economic tumult and where
President Kais Saied has railed against dark-skinned people.
Meloni put the blame on human traffickers, calling them a
"mafia" who earn as much as drug smugglers, but said Italy would
also work to address root causes and help African nations "grow
and prosper." (ANSA-AFP).
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