No simple solution to immigrant crisis: Italian bishops' spokesman

April 23, 2015

The secretary-general of the Italian bishops' conference has said that "all routes must be taken, all solutions must be adopted," to prevent a recurrence of the disaster in which an estimated 800 refugees from Libya died in a Mediterranean shipping tragedy.

Bishop Nunzio Galantino said that the problem of illegal migration cannot be solved in a single step. He discouraged reliance on the suggestion-- advanced by some in Italy-- that the boats belonging to unscrupulous "people smugglers" should be burned, to stop them from taking refugees on the perilous journey toward Europe.

"I hope the solutions to be adopted are not the fruit of animosity, or worse still, of people who want to garner some votes from this tragedy," Bishop Galantino said.

The bishop said that Italy cannot be expected to absorb the flood of immigrants alone.

 

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Further information:

• Migrants' boat destruction ok: Bishops (ANSA)