As another frantic weekend of rescues unfolded, at least 4,000 people were plucked to safety from packed fishing boats and rubber dinghies off Libya.
Mass drownings in the Mediterranean have claimed nearly 1,800 lives so far this year.
All of those rescued will be deposited at ports on Sicily or elsewhere in southern Italy in the coming days, lifting this year's total of new arrivals on Italian soil to over 50,000.
The latest batch sent the migration crisis back to the top of the political agenda with three big northern regions vowing to defy the centre-left government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi by refusing to house any of the new arrivals.
Lombardy president Roberto Maroni said he would be writing to local mayors and prefects in his region on Monday to warn them not to accept any more "illegal immigrants" allocated by the government. Municipalities that did not tow the line would have their funding from the region cut, he said.
Giovanni Toti, the newly-elected president of Liguria, backed that stance.
"I have already said it: we will not receive any more migrants, and Lombardy, Veneto and Val d'Aosta will do the same thing."
Luca Zaia, the right-wing president of Veneto, said the region that includes Venice was: "Like a bomb ready to go off. The social tensions are absolutely crazy."...
AFP
TV100F.com
7/6/15
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Related:
Northern Italian politicians vow not to shelter any more migrants...
ReplyDeleteHeartened by recent election successes by an anti-immigrant party, Italian politicians based in the north vowed Sunday not to shelter any more migrants saved at sea, even as thousands more were being rescued in the Mediterranean from smugglers' boats in distress.
Elsewhere in the country, however, corruptions investigations have revealed that some local officials gleefully see a cash cow in the shelters.
Over the weekend, nearly 6,000 migrants were rescued by an array of European military vessels, including 2,371 who were saved on Sunday from 15 boats that ran into difficulty shortly after smugglers set off with them from Libyan shores, the Italian coast guard said......AP....ctvnews.ca
7/6/15