Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has defended her government’s actions over the migrants shipwreck off the coast of Calabria, Southern Italy.
(Bloomberg) — Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has defended her government’s actions over the migrants shipwreck off the coast of Calabria, Southern Italy.
At least 70 people, including children, were killed on February 26 when their boat broke apart only a few hundred meters from the shore. Almost two hundred people, mostly from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, were travelling on a wooden fishing boat that had left Turkey a few days earlier.
Addressing reporters during a trip to Abu Dhabi, Meloni said she is not planning to change interior minister Matteo Piantedosi, who has been criticized over his handling of the disaster.
Piantedosi, a member of Matteo Salvini’s League party, has attracted criticism after he said even desperate situations do not justify attempts to cross the sea in risky conditions.
Since taking office in late 2022, Meloni’s government has adopted a tougher stance on migration, including limiting the ability of NGOs’ ships to dock in Italian ports. The policies have triggered a spat with France and attracted European Union scrutiny.
During a visit in the city of Crotone a few day ago, Italian President Sergio Mattarella called on the European Union to bring in a collective mechanism to manage the arrival of asylum seekers after the disaster.
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