U.N. Says Italy Violates International Conventions

STEVE INSKEEP, Host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:

And I'm Renee Montagne. Immigrants are changing the Europe that a previous generation knew. That change adds to the tension over illegal migration, and Europeans are debating how to respond to the flow of people.

INSKEEP: We begin with the struggle over immigration to Italy. Just as Americans debate how to handle their southern border, Italians debate how to police their seacoast. The navy is intercepting boatloads of migrants trying to make their way from Libya. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees charges that the new policy violates international conventions. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports on the Italian response.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI: Over the weekend, defense minister Ignazio La Russa railed against UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, for criticizing Italy's push-back policy.

IGNAZIO LA RUSSA: (Through translator) I accuse this so-called agency, which isn't worth a damn, of being either inhuman or an accomplice of those who want to break the law.

POGGIOLI: Christopher Hein, director of an Italian non-governmental refugee organization agrees and says Italy's policy is a clear violation of the Geneva Refugee Convention.

CHRISTOPHER HEIN: Where it is foreseen that in no case an asylum seeker or refugee can be expelled or rejected towards a territory where his or her life or freedom may be at risk because of race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular social group.

POGGIOLI: The sharp tone of the confrontation is unprecedented. Catholic bishops have protested the new policy, and opposition leader Antonio Di Pietro compared the current climate to racist laws during fascism.

ANTONIO DI PIETRO: (Italian spoken)

POGGIOLI: But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi shot back at the critics.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI: (Through translator) The leftist opposition has a vision of a multiethnic Italy. We do not.

POGGIOLI: But the European Union has yet to criticize Rome for its immigrant crackdown. Jean-Leonard Touadi, one of Italy's few minority parliamentary deputies, says many European countries quietly approve the Rome government's anti-immigration policies.

JEAN: Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.