Meloni rejects speculation govt didn't want to save shipwreck victims


04 March 202318:23NEWS

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 4 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Saturday dismissed speculation that her government may have in some way impeded operations that would have saved the victims of last Sunday's migrant-boat disaster off Calabria.

So far 69 people are confirmed to have died in the shipwreck and dozens more are missing, feared dead.

"Can there really be anyone who, in good conscience, thinks that the government deliberately let 60 people die?" Meloni said at a press conference during her visit to Abu Dhabi.

"Please, let's be serious".

She added that she was considering holding her next cabinet meeting in Cutro, the town off which the disaster took place, and to put the focus of it on migration.

Meloni reiterated that the Italian authorities did not get an alert from EU border agency Frontex that the fishing boat that the asylum seekers were on, and which broke up in rough waters, was in distress.

"Although dramatic, the situation is simple," Meloni said.

"No emergency signals came from Frontex.

"Furthermore, the route is not among those covered by non-government organizations (that run search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean) and so it has nothing to do with the government's policies," she added, referring to a recent decree regulating NGO-run rescue activities.

"Even though we are working to stop illegal migrant flows, we have continued to save all the people (in distress at sea).

"This is history. I really do not think there is material to go too far in this way in order to hit someone who is considered an opponent".

A probe has been opened into whether rescue operations were negligently delayed.
The government has staunchly defended the coast guard, which has said it followed its rules in handling such situations.

On Saturday, two lawmakers for the Italian Left (Sinistra Italiana) party, Ilaria Cucchi and Nicola Fratoianni, filed petitions calling on Rome prosecutors to check whether there had been "ministerial provisions preventing the Coast Guard from going out to sea" to save the shipwreck victims.

(ANSA).