Italy threatens to flout asylum rules following Libyan shipwreck

Italy has threatened to stop accepting asylum seekers and simply send new arrivals to other parts of Europe, following another shipwreck which left 17 dead off its coast.

Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday said that his country would soon just let them asylum-seekers go - in breach of the European Union’s (EU) asylum laws - if the EU did not seriously step up its assistance to southern Mediterranean countries that have been left facing the brunt of the burden.

The migrants mainly come from Africa and the Middle East and set out on illegal smuggling ships from ports in places like Libya and Tunisia.

The warning that Italy may abandon the Dublin Convention, which states that migrants must remain in the country in which they arrive and make their asylum application there until their refugee status is approved, comes after yet another shipwreck.

Twelve women, three children and two men were killed in the Monday disaster, while 206 survivors were rescued. Scores more are still missing.

So far in 2014, 36,000 migrants have landed in Italy, with Eritreans, Somalians and Syrians making up the bulk of the new arrivals, according to Italy’s interior ministry.

This compares to 42,925 for all of 2013, 13,267 in 2012 and 63,000 in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring revolts.

Hundreds are believed to drown every year in the perilous journeys. The UN's refugee agency estimated 170 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe this year off Greece, Italy and Libya, as well as in international waters.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said search and rescue operations should be "further strengthened" and asked for the international community to find legal alternatives like resettlement to stop refugees from making dangerous journeys.

"Europe is leaving us on our own," Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has promised to make immigration a top priority during Italy's EU presidency this year, said on ReteQuattro television after Monday's disaster.

"It can't save governments and banks and then let mothers and children die," Renzi said.

Human rights groups have widely slammed Italy for its failure to deal with the asylum-seeker influx and for often confining asylum-seeker in harsh detention centres, although there have been widespread calls by southern Mediterranean countries for their wealthier northern neighbours to take on a bigger part of the immigration burden.