scafisti

“What this government wants to do is to go and look for smugglers all over the globe,” declared the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in the press conference of Cutro, a few days after the shipwreck that led to the death of 92 people.The so-called smugglers seem to have become the heart of the government's line on immigration, with a new decree which further tightens the penalties for those who drive a boat carrying migrants.The persecution of smugglers is not a new strategy:in the last decade it has been a cornerstone of Italian and European migration policies.What has it meant so far? Is this really the solution to stopping departures and deaths at sea?And who really are the smugglers? “We cannot fail to see that it is a very hot political issue and that there is a strong demand, just read the newspapers, for the punishment of the highest possible number of smugglers on the face of the earth", explains to Blue suitcase Gigi Omar Modica, magistrate who has been dealing with irregular im...