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Italy seeking 'dignity' for Mediterranean migrants - Conte

03 luglio 2018 | 17.27
LETTURA: 2 minuti

 - AFP
- AFP

The Italian government wants "dignity" for the tens upon hundreds of thousands of migrants who undertake perilous journeys from Africa to reach Europe, premier Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday.

"We ask for dignity, also for those who make risky overland and sea odysseys - have you seen how many have died in recent days?" Conte told reporters in Rome.

About 170 migrants have gone missing in the Mediterranean since Friday in shipwrecks off the Libyan coast. A total 1,405 migrant perished during the crossing this year through 1 July, according to the United Nations migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

"We are concerned about them, both when they set off on their journeys and as regards their inhumane trafficking - which we are fighting," Conte said.

Conte claimed that Italy had "affirmed its migration policy" at the 27-29 June summit of European leaders "albeit not 100 percent". The summit agreed to set up migrant processing centres outside Italy, to tighten the bloc's borders and to resettle refugees across the EU.

Conte said the government's stance "remains unchanged" in opposing rules requiring migrants to apply for asylum in the first European Union country they reach and to stay there until their claim is processed.

"Our position is a reasonable one," Conte claimed.

His comments came after a last-ditch deal late Monday between Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative CSU partner. Under the deal, migrants who have applied for asylum in other European Union countries will be held in transit centres on the border while Germany negotiates bilateral deals for their return.

The deal settled a row over migration that threatened to topple Merkel's fragile governing coalition. If it goes into effect, the compromise ends her 2015 'open borders' policy that saw Germany take in a million refugees from war in the Middle East and Africa.

Tighter German border controls have in the past raised fears of a migrant build-up in neighbouring Austria. The country's conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Tuesday the government will take measures to protect its southern frontier if Merkel's deal with the CSU is implemented.

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