As EU leaders were preparing for an emergency summit in Brussels today to discuss Europe's ongoing migrant crisis, another boatload of migrants was unloaded in the harbour of Catania, Sicily.
On a beautiful sunny morning, against the backdrop of snow covered, vulcanic Mount Etna, some 220 migrants, nearly all young African men in apparently good health, arrived in Italy. For the rescue services, it is a case of business as usual as the migrants come off the Italian navy ship, one by one, to be given a cursory examination. The medical services, for all the world, look like horse dealers at a fair, checking the horse's teeth.
Today's boatload, like so many others, was picked up just 40 miles off the coast of Libya when two overcrowded, 12 metre vessels got into trouble two days ago. These migrants were among the lucky ones since the Italian navy arrived before their listing ships, already taking on water, sank. Initial reports suggest that most of these migrants come from sub-Saharan African countries such as Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
Signficantly, not all the migrants were disembarked with three of them, presumed traffickers, being separated from the others to be taken immediately into police custody. Those arrests, like that of the alleged captain of the boat people vessel which sank with the loss of 700-900 lives last weekend, reflect the harder line in confronting human trafficking called for yesterday by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi on the eve of today's EU migration summit in Brussels.
Yesterday, Mr Renzi suggested that not all of the people on these boats are “innocent people”. Pointing to the alarming political instability in Libya, the prime minister seemed to suggest that the presence of ISIS in the north African country represents a serious threat for Italy.
Accordingly, Italy would like to see the EU strengthen its response to clandestine migration, extending the mandate and capacity of the current Mediterranean controlling authority, Triton, run by the EU border control agency, Frontex. For example, Italian interior minister Angelino Alfano on Wednesday called for the immediate destruction of all those vessels sequestered from the traffickers.
It remains to be seen if Italy's EU partners are willing to support such a hardline. Yesterday, the Forza Italia party led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi called for a naval blocade off the coast of Libya, from the where the majority of the boat people depart. Most observers argue that such a measure is both politically and practically impossible but it indicates the extent to which part of Italian public opinion is tempted to adopt a "Fortress Europe" line in relation to the migration problem.
Italian commentators continue to issue dire predictions of an impending migration of biblical proportions, with anything from half a million to one million Africans reportedly ready to attempt the crossing of the Meditteranean from north Africa during the mild summer weather.
Meanwhile, Monsignor Giancarlo Perego, of the Catholic migration organisation, Migrantes, rejected such calls for a repressive hardline, saying:
“Europe’s plans for dealing with migration are weak, even shameful. Yet again, people think that they can deal with the problem by contrasting the traffickers, rather than creating corridors for humanitarian purposes”.