Catania minors' prosecutors on
Wednesday wrote to the interior and transport ministers, the
head of the civil liberties and immigration department and the
local prefect urging them to let unaccompanied minors off the
Diciotti coast guard ship docked in the Sicilian city.
The ship currently holds 177 migrants including 29
unaccompanied minors.
Agrigento prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio on Wednesday boarded
the Dicotti coast guard ship in a probe into the allegedly
unlawful detention of the 177 migrants who have been aboard the
ship for five days and prevented from landing for two days.
The probe may lead to charges of abduction, legal sources
said.
The probe is as yet against person or persons unknown.
If it were to target Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who
has ordered the migrants kept on board until the EU agrees to
redistribute them, the case will be put to a special ministers'
tribunal, the sources said.
Libya will refuse "all initiatives aimed at repatriating
migrants to its territory", Foreign Minister Muhammad Sayala
said Wednesday.
Sayala, a member of the national unity government, told the
LANA news agency that "Libya will in no way accept what is being
reported by some news outlets regarding the repatriation of
illegal migrants towards the North African countries they have
come from".
Interior Minister Salvini has said Italy will send back the
177 migrants to Libya unless the EU agrees to redistribute them.
They are currently at Catania but have been prevented from
landing pending the EU's response.
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