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Italy expects UN support to stop people smugglers

Xinhua, April 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday that his country will place top priority on halting people smugglers who actually created numerous tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea.

After visiting Italian Navy ship San Giusto in the port of Sicily, the premier said: "Stopping human traffickers in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe is an absolute priority, and we count on UN support for this."

"Italy once faced the issue of migration in the Mediterranean alone, now the entire international community is aware that this is a global problem and not the problem of just one country".

Italy has proven itself generous after the October 3, 2013 shipwreck off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa that took the lives of 366 African migrants, Renzi said. "But we must raise our voices on the international level, in Europe and in the UN," he added.

Earlier on Monday, Renzi met with the UN chief and EU High Foreign Representative Federica Mogherini on board the San Giusto, which has been deployed on search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean. Endit