UN chides Italy over migrants’ rights
GENEVA - The UN human rights chief admonished Italy and other countries yesterday for treating boat people like “dangerous waste’’ that threatens to wash up on their shores.
Tens of thousands of migrants cross the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aden, the Straits of Florida, and other stretches of water in barely seaworthy boats each year, fleeing persecution at home or searching for better economic prospects abroad.
“In many cases, authorities reject these migrants and leave them to face hardship and peril, if not death, as though they were turning away ships laden with dangerous waste,’’ UN rights chief Navi Pillay said to the UN Human Rights Council.
Italy recently started intercepting boat people before they reached Italian shores as part of a policy to clamp down on illegal immigrants.
Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, rejected the charge that his country was ignoring the plight of migrants.
