Italy to stiffen smuggling punishment after migrant tragedy

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has brought her planned crackdown on people smugglers to a southern town near the coast where a wooden boat crowded with migrants broke apart. Scores of people were killed in the Feb. 26 tragedy and many others were left missing. Meloni was leading her Cabinet in a session Thursday hosted in Cutro’s town council hall. It was a symbolic move to highlight what she has described as the government’s genuine concern for migrants’ lives. Her ministers are expected to approve stiffer punishments for smugglers who guide unseaworthy boats crowded with migrants to Italy’s shores. Also reportedy on the agenda are steps to facilitate refugees’ access to humanitarian corridors to Europe as they flee persecution or war at home.