Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday met relatives of 18 fishermen who have been detained in eastern Libya since the beginning of September for allegedly entering Libyan coastal waters, according to government sources.
Conte and foreign minister Luigi Di Maio are said to have met relatives of the fishermen from Sicily's Mazara del Vallo fleet at the lower house of parliament. The families had travelled to Rome to hold a protest outside the parliament building at the fishermen's month-long detention in the Libyan port city of Benghazi.
The government has said it is committed to securing the fishermen's rapid release and to this end has sought help from Russia and the United Arab Emirates, which wield influence in eastern Libya.
In mid-September Di Maio said Italy refused to bow to "blackmail" after warlord Khalifa Haftar is understood to demanded that four Libyan footballers who were arrested in Italy in 2015 and jailed on human trafficking charges are released in exchange for the fishermen's freedom.
