“It is my hope that the United Nations Security Council will adopt the resolution proposed by the countries of Europe and based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter”, said Minister for Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to be aired this evening. The resolution, the minister added, “would provide a framework of international legality for the conduction of operations aimed at identifying and destroying the migrant smuggler’s boats before they have a chance to leave”.
“If the trafficking of migrants is going to be stopped the various Libyan parties have to be involved, and for that we trust in the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Libya Bernardino Leon, which Italy fully supports”.
The minister also underscored that “Italy is taking in two-thirds of the illegal immigrants reaching Europe, and is in third place after Germany and Sweden for number asylum applications. We are doing our part. Sharing their settlement distribution by means of a quota system would only be fair”, Gentiloni concluded.