Boris Johnson said after meeting Italy’s Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in Florence on Thursday that the European Union mission should turn back migrant boats as a deterrent and that it had “saved 200,000 migrants and turned back 240 boats”.
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According to Italy’s interior ministry, almost 128,400 migrants have arrived via the Mediterranean since the start of the year – a five percent jump over the same period last year.
“I think I’m right in saying we turned back 200,000 migrants, sorry saved, saved 200,000 migrants, so I do think it’s the right approach”, insisted Johnson without specifying which migrants he was referring to. “We saved 200,000 migrants and turned back 240 boats”.
On the frontier between Europe and Africa, Italy is the focus for hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, packed into rickety boats by smugglers.
It is illegal to turn back migrant boats once they reach global waters and a UN-backed government in Libya has not invited European ships into its territorial waters, saying this would undermine its own state-building efforts. There was no immediate comment from Operation Sophia officials in Rome.
“Very soon, IS will no longer have control over territory in Libya”, Kobler said, adding that Al-bunyan Al-Marsous operation fighters have so far cornered the terrorists in a very narrow area in Sirte and ready to eradicate hem.
In total, around 128,000 migrants have been picked up in the Mediterranean and taken to Italy. Most were from sub-Saharan African countries and about one-third were women and children, he said.
HMS Enterprise was involved in a rescue operation to save 750 migrants off Libya on Thursday, the Italian coastguard said.
The vast majority of the 117,900 people who arrived in Italy this year came by boat from Libya.
Mr Johnson was in Italy for talks about Britain’s decision to abandon the European Union.
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The Australian government’s policy of turning back asylum seeker boats is considered a key component of the recent reduction in the number of boat arrivals.
