Frontex must absorb Mare Nostrum.

We can’t let people die at sea, says Italy’s Defence Minister

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will present to the EU Council a plan to transform the European border agency Frontex and make it absorb the migrant rescue programme – Mare Nostrum, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti has revealed.

Mare NostrumIt has been estimated that the naval operation to rescue migrants costs Italy nine million Euros a month.

The minister told Radio 24 that it wasn’t right for Italy alone to bear the costs of this operation in an emergency situation.

The EU Council will meet on 25th and 26th June 2014 in Brussels, Belgium.

Ms Pinotti said Mare Nostrum cannot be considered a failure unless one doesn’t want to accept the fact that thousands of people die off Italy’s coasts. In such a situation, “you have to decide above all not to let people – children, mothers, die at sea,” she said.

Some centre-right politicians have demanded an end to the naval operation accusing the Italian navy of helping run a taxi service for irregular immigrants.

Ms Pinotti said it was wrong to try to gain political mileage while human beings risked dying. She stressed that Frontex must absorb the Mare Nostrum operation.

via Frontex must absorb Mare Nostrum. We can’t let people die at sea, says Italy’s Defence Minister