Tragedy of Crotone, Bonaccini replies to Meloni: “Dear president, we need to stop the traffickers, not the NGOs”

After the news of the Crotone tragedy, in a note the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expresses «her deep sorrow for the many human lives cut short by human traffickers. It is criminal to launch a vessel just 20 meters long with as many as 200 people on board and with adverse weather forecasts. It is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of the “ticket” they pay in the false perspective of a safe journey. The Government is committed to preventing the departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding maximum collaboration from the States of departure and of origin. The action of those who today speculate on these deaths speaks for itself, after having exalted the illusion of an immigration without rules». Shortly after, Stefano Bonaccini’s answer arrives, candidate for the Pd secretariat. «Dear President Meloni, no controversy while there are dead and missing at sea. But since you are discussing the merits, I repeat what I think: stopping the smugglers is a priority, as an absolute priority must be saving lives at sea. The war on NGOs unleashed by the government is not only meaningless, but it is also a contradiction in terms of these principles, which should see politics united. As well as stopping departures: it is necessary and possible to the extent that safe humanitarian channels are opened (those that are radically alternative to the smugglers’ routes) and respect for human rights is rigorously verified. Otherwise it is propaganda and inhumanity, as the number of arrivals and the tragic accounts of the dead at sea tell us”.

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Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is also of the same opinion, who could perhaps already arrive in Calabria today and says that “the shipwreck that took place off the coast of Calabria saddens me deeply and first of all imposes on us the deep condolences for the lost human lives”. “It is a huge tragedy – continues the owner of the Viminale – which demonstrates how it is absolutely necessary to firmly combat the chains of irregular immigration, in which unscrupulous smugglers operate who, in order to get rich, organize these improvised trips, with inadequate boats and in prohibitive conditions ». «It is unacceptable that the Mediterranean has become a large open-air cemetery. This makes us understand how inhuman and against every fundamental right it is to issue decrees that have the sole purpose of making it more difficult to save lives at sea, when instead we would need a large European humanitarian, search and rescue mission at sea. A European Mare Nostrum. Where the Coast Guard does not arrive, where the NGOs that save lives at sea do not arrive, unfortunately we are witnessing a tragedy that is not as acceptable as today’s in Crotone. I’m really impressed, we must continue to fight so that it doesn’t happen again» declares the deputy and candidate for the leadership of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein.

“A tragedy. By now the smugglers are launching ever less safe and run-down ‘small boats’ into the sea, earning, on the skin of these people, millions of dollars reinvested in weapons and drugs. Stopping human traffickers is everyone’s moral duty, especially to save innocent lives. A prayer for these poor dead» writes the leader of the League and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on social media. “Dozens of dead, including children. Lives unjustly broken, the Mediterranean still stained with blood. Now we need to put slogans aside and ensure that Europe is truly present, supportive and united in managing and controlling migratory flows. We owe it to ourselves, to our values, to the hope that was in the eyes of those who met their death today» writes the M5s leader, Giuseppe Conte on social media. «Another massacre of migrants at sea. And yet another massacre of children. We also said it this week in the Senate: human traffickers must be blocked, not NGOs and volunteers who try to save lives. An unspeakable pain» writes the leader of IV Matteo Renzi on social networks.