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ROME: Migrants and rights activists protested in Rome Saturday against Italy’s migrant deal with Libya, a day after some 20 people were feared dead in the latest boat wreck in the Mediterranean.
Under a controversial 2017 deal renewed under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s hard-right government, Italy funds and trains the Libyan coast guard.
In return, Libya is expected to help stem the departure of migrants to Italy or return those already at sea back to Libya. That agreement is up for renewal next month.
During the protest, dozens of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa recounted what they endured in Libya, and a minute of silence was held for those who died trying to cross the Mediterranean.
Hundreds of people attended the event, including activist Sarita Fratini.
“In the central Mediterranean, there is a line called the line of death,” Fratini told AFP.
“In the Libyan area, you get captured. In the north, you die because there is no one there.”
Fratini has been helping migrants sue Italy after they were seized in the Mediterranean by Libya and pushed back to detention centers there.
Rights activists and former detainees have denounced such centers for abuse, torture and other crimes.

- ‘Total anguish’ -

Irene Dea, 46, from Ivory Coast, told AFP she had tried to reach Europe three times by boat, with 12 people dying in the Mediterranean on her first attempt.
After Libyan forces pushed back her boat, she spent six months at the notorious Az-Zawiyah detention center west of Tripoli.
“I saw women being raped with my own eyes” there, she said. “You don’t eat... it was total anguish.”
NGOs have reported increasing episodes in recent months of Libya’s coast guard shooting at boats carrying migrants in the Mediterranean.
Last week, the Alarm Phone charity, which runs a hotline for migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, reported a fatal shooting at a boat it said was carrying 113 migrants southeast of Malta.
Italy’s coast guard also said migrants it subsequently rescued said they had been shot at.
If boats are not returned to Libya, migrants still have to survive the journey across the Mediterranean.
That crossing has cost the lives of more than 1,000 people so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

- Rescue operation criticized -

On Friday, Italy’s coast guard said it was searching for the survivors of a wrecked vessel carrying about 30 people in the search and a rescue area of Malta, some 50 miles southeast of Lampedusa.
It said the coast guard had rescued seven people and another four were picked up by a nearby merchant ship.
One body was recovered, with Italian and Maltese patrol vessels and Italian planes taking part in the search.
The Italian coordinator for UNICEF, Nicola Dell’Arciprete, told AGI news agency that a pregnant woman had died and “several children are reported missing.”
He said four children traveling alone were among the survivors, who told authorities the small fiberglass boat had left Al Khums, Libya, before capsizing after two days at sea.
Sea-Watch International, which operates migrant rescue boats, criticized the rescue operation.
“Italy and Malta knew about the boat since yesterday afternoon, thanks to Alarm Phone, but did not send help until it was too late,” it said in a social media post Saturday.
Alarm Phone also said it had signalled the boat carrying about 35 people to the authorities, but “they failed to act.
“The boat capsized, we fear about 20 deaths. We cannot express our anger at yet another group consciously being left to die,” wrote Alarm Phone on social media.

LONDON: The UK Foreign Office recommended that David Lammy, the country’s foreign secretary at the time, endorse a trade mission to Israel in late May despite his earlier criticism of Tel Aviv’s conduct in Gaza.

Lammy had also suspended trade talks with Israel, yet Foreign Office staffers insisted that ministers should support the visit by Ian Austin, a pro-Israel peer, .

Austin’s trip went ahead despite lacking support from ministers or advisers as a result of bureaucratic dysfunction. Officials had earlier requested ministerial advice over the visit.

The Foreign Office said that Austin would not meet any Israeli government representatives while in the country, yet images show the peer meeting top trade officials on two occasions.

At a reception at the British Embassy attended by Austin, Israeli Minister Yoav Kisch also delivered a speech.

Lammy had suspended talks with Israel on a free trade agreement on May 20.

Despite this, a Foreign Office staffer, in a submission on the visit, said: “(British Embassy) Tel Aviv report that the business community in Israel are agitated by yesterday’s announcement. If we were to turn off this visit now, cancelling several visits and meetings, it would send a bad signal.”

Through the visit, Austin would be able “to explain to Israeli civil society and business … that nothing has changed in our existing trading relationship,” the briefing said, adding: “We recommend the visit goes ahead. Do you agree?”

A source told The Guardian that Lammy did not receive the submission.

On the Israel visit, Austin met officials from Rafael, the arms company that develops parts of the Iron Dome system and Spike missiles, which have been used in drone strikes that killed British aid workers in Gaza.

The British Embassy publicized details of Austin’s visit at the time.

It led to criticism of inconsistencies in foreign policy as it followed Lammy’s sharp rebuke of the Israeli government days earlier.

The apparent discrepancy will raise questions about the UK government’s relationship with Israel and its defense industry.