Migration a ‘biblical exodus’, says Italian MP

Rome, June 27 (IANS/AKI) Italy is on the receiving end of a "biblical exodus" of boat migrants from Africa, an Italian lawmaker said on Tuesday, urging the government to halt the influx, even by refusing migrants entry at national ports.

"We are now facing an biblical exodus," said Paolo Romani, head of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's opposition Forza Italia party in the upper house of Parliament.

"A total of 5,000 migrants were saved (in the Mediterranean) yesterday while 8,500 are currently heading for Italy aboard rescue ships," said Romani.

Italy's centre-left government was showing a "worrying" inability to manage a situation that was "becoming more dramatic each day", he said.

"The government has the obligation to shoulder all of its responsibilities and to act in the national interest, if necessary, by blocking our ports, as other countries have done," Romano stated.

He accused the Italian government of accepting "empty promises" of help from European Union leaders in sharing the migrant burden and said the UN Security Council should help stop the migrant boats set sail from North Africa.

"Either we take immediate action or we face an evident failure that will have inevitable political consequences, Romano warned.

Charity rescue ships saving migrants in the Mediterranean were only "worsening the situation," Romano alleged.

The government has struggled to handle over half a million migrants including refugees and asylum-seekers who have landed in Italy since 2014.

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