‘No more migrants’ vow Italian politicians

Heartened by recent election successes by an anti-immigrant party, Italian politicians based in the north vowed yesterday not to shelter any more migrants saved at sea, even as hundreds more were being rescued in the Mediterranean from smugglers’ boats in distress.

Elsewhere in the country, however, corruptions investigations have revealed some local officials gleefully see a cash cow in the shelters.

After nearly 3,500 migrants were rescued in a single day on Saturday by an array of European military vessels, well over 1,000 more were being plucked to safety from at least 14 boats that ran into difficulty yesterday shortly after smugglers set off with them from Libyan shores, said a UN refugee agency official, Federico Fossi. Two German military ships brought a total of some 1,400 people to Sicilian ports yesterday, a day after they were rescued.