UN urges Italy to withdraw decree on migrants

ROME: The Italian interior ministry has vowed to press ahead with a new decree formalising the closure of the country’s ports to aid groups that rescue migrants, despite UN human rights investigators saying it violates international law.Ministry officials said the security decree was “necessary and urgent” and was expected to be approved at a cabinet meeting on Monday (today).In a letter to Italy’s government, dated May 15 and released on Saturday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Italy to withdraw the decree, calling it “yet another political attempt to criminalise search and rescue operations”.The decree “further intensifies the climate of hostility and xenophobia against migrants”, said the letter which was signed by several UN human rights rapporteurs .Interior minister Matteo Salvini, a hard-line populist, proposed the decree before the European Parliament elections this week, where nationalist, anti-migrant parties are hoping to make strong gains.The UN letter said the measures would violate migrants’ human rights, which were enshrined in UN conventions that Italy had signed. It said Italy was obliged to rescue migrants in distress and could not impede others from doing so. Interior ministry officials told journalists that Turkey and North Korea punished border violations similarly and that Italy had long had fines in its legal code, which have merely been updated.

from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2QejxMK