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ROME: Fifty-one migrants including two infants landed on a beach in southern Italy on Thursday, despite the far-right interior minister’s insistence that the country is closed to new arrivals.
Locals in the small town of Torre Melissa in Calabria were woken before dawn by the cries of the Kurdish migrants, who had set sail from Turkey, the mayor Gino Murgi said. The interior ministry said they were the first arrivals of the year. Some 23,270 people landed in Italy in 2018, most of whom had set off from crisis-hit Libya in North Africa. Those arriving from Turkey are often packed into sailing boats by Ukrainian or Russian people-smugglers and dropped off on beaches. (AFP)
Locals in the small town of Torre Melissa in Calabria were woken before dawn by the cries of the Kurdish migrants, who had set sail from Turkey, the mayor Gino Murgi said. The interior ministry said they were the first arrivals of the year. Some 23,270 people landed in Italy in 2018, most of whom had set off from crisis-hit Libya in North Africa. Those arriving from Turkey are often packed into sailing boats by Ukrainian or Russian people-smugglers and dropped off on beaches. (AFP)
