Italian integration minister calls for humanity twd migrants
(ANSA) – Brussels, October 17 – Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge told journalists before a meeting with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs in Brussels that the EU external border agency FRONTEX needs to show more humanity toward migrants.
“Reinforce FRONTEX, but also go toward humanitarianism. That is what Italy has begun to do and asks from Europe – to look for a change in FRONTEX’s approach,” Kyenge said before her meeting with the Swedish EU commissioner Cecile Malmstrom.
Kyenge also called for looking at a disastrous shipwreck near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, in which 364 migrants – mostly Somalis and Eritreans – lost their lives “not only as a tragedy but also as an opportunity for changing our vision”.
On Tuesday, ANSA reported a rift in the European Council in talks underway for guidelines concerning maritime surveillance in FRONTEX operations on the matter of rescue operations and landings.
According to an October 10 document, a copy of which ANSA is in possession of, Italy, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta and Spain ask that the matter remain in the boundaries of ”international conventions” and that new elements are not brought in containing ”inflexible aspects that do not add any value”.