(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Italian Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti and Minister of Interior Angelino Alfano on Tuesday urged the European Union and UN to shoulder their responsibilities for helping Italy in stemming flow of illegal immigrants from Africa into Europe.
Speaking to the parliament committee on national security, Pinotti said Italy should not be left alone in the face of this humanitarian emergency.
Europe and the UN have to shoulder their respective responsibility in this regard, she stressed.
Pinotti made the comments in the wake the death of 17 illegal immigrants off the southern island of Lampedusa; their boat, reportedly carrying 400 people, capsized after setting sail from northern Libya.
Italy does its utmost to accommodate the growing numbers of illegal immigrants and refugees, she said.
Pinotti estimated that two thirds of those people fled their countries due to wars and economic hardships and therefore they are entitled to asylum.
Europe and the UN have to intervene and address the problem through a concerted action at the Mediterranean seaports of North Africa where illegal immigrants come from, she added.
Meanwhile, Alfano said his country raised four proposals for addressing this humanitarian problem.
These include the setting up by the European Commission of refugee camps in North Africa, particularly Libya, under international supervision, and the EU should lead the mid-sea rescue operations for refugees through its external border agency (Frontex) which should be relocated in Rome in order to be better able to hand asylum applications, the minister of interior said.
Unless the EU intervenes in the surveillance and control operations at the southern borders of Italy, the country will let the huge numbers of refugees cross into central and northern European countries, he warned.
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