Italy charged with causing refugee death

Protesters gathered in front of the Interior Ministry in Rome on Wednesday, using red paint to illustrate their accusations that the Italian government had hands stained with the blood of dead refugees.

Protests are related to the offshore find of a ship destroyed by a Spanish humanitarian association in Libya's waters. In the ship that was destroyed were the lifeless bodies of a woman and a child; and another woman was saved alive. Associations accuse the Libyan coastal guard of abandoning refugees:

This is a direct consequence of preventing the work of humanitarian associations from saving lives in the Mediterranean. This is the result,” says Oscar Caps, director of the association “Proactiva Open Arms”.

The Italian government, a coalition between the far-right North League party and the populist movement Five Stars, has blocked humanitarian ships' access to Italian ports.

At the beginning of the week, Italy imposed five other European countries to house 450 rescue immigrants, as Rome initially refused to let them land at Italian ports. The Italian interior minister wrote on Twitter: Cohesive and non-comprom government results in”.

I aim to save everyone. He healed everyone. I feed everyone. But I don't want to let everyone come to Italy,” said Interior Minister Matteo Salvin.

The figures released by the EU Borders Agency Frontex show that three thousand refugees used the maritime corridor towards Italy and Malta last month, or 87% less than in June 2017.

“Shifrat had also fallen far below the previous government as a result of several agreements between Italy and Libya. In fact, the number of refugees arriving in Italy had declined greatly. Now the policy that prohibits the landing of refugees from ships of humanitarian organisations is deepening this decline. Furthermore, it has resulted in a strong political victory for the North League, especially the fact that several other European countries are being forced to accept refugees arriving in Italy,” says Louis Scazier of the Centre for European Reform.

The United Nations says that one in seven refugees who have tried to cross the Mediterranean has drowned since Italy closed ports to humanitarian ships. This firm stand has reduced the number of refugees, but at a high fatal cost. The EU is trying to find a solution, says Mr. Skazier.

The <x0Ides currently being discussed are asylum applications outside EU territory, strengthening Frontex's role, and division of burden among EU members. As the discussions continue, uncertainty continues over the impact of Italian policies”.

Spain has now surpassed Italy as the country that accepted the largest number of refugees in June with 6400 people. But Spain is unlikely to become a top destination.

For Spain to become a top destination, refugees must leave Morocco, but this is not a state almost failed as Libya,” says Mr. Scazier.

In total, the number of illegal immigrants who entered the EU in the first half of 2018 reached over 600,000 people, marking a drop of nearly 50% compared to the number registered a year ago.