Italy asks EU to help deal with refugee influx
Italy alone cannot cope with the flow of refugees and migrants who are trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.
Rome has asked the European Union to find a solution to a serious problem that has been ignored for years. Interior Minister Luciana Lamorghese called on the EU to convene a meeting to discuss the topic. This year alone, more than 30 thousand people made it to Europe by boat.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that two rescue vessels of the non-governmental organizations Ocean Viking and SeaWatch 3 intend to land about 800 more people. Ships patrol the Mediterranean to rescue migrants. They are ready to overcome its waters by any means possible. They are often wrecked and killed on the high seas.
EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ilva Johansson agrees that Italy and other countries on the external borders of the union should not independently solve the problem of migrants. She proposed a mandatory redistribution of migrants to other EU states. However, most likely her request will be ignored. There is too much disagreement among the European powers on this topic.
Johansson also considers it necessary that the countries temporarily reopen ports for NGO rescue ships flying European flags. But this discussion causes nothing but controversy. The ships, meanwhile, remain in dire straits. Two planes with migrants are still at sea, as they have not received instructions on where to disembark people. Their state of health is already close to critical: they suffer from dehydration and motion sickness.
The authorities of the EU countries are more hindering the solution of the issue. They seek to confiscate the rescue ships. In addition, radical politicians got down to business. The head of the Italian right-wing radical Liga party, Matteo Salvini, appealed to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a demand to stop the disembarkation of migrants.