ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday that her government had faced ‘atrocious’ accusations but that her conscience was clear, after Rome’s ability to rescue migrants at sea came under scrutiny following several shipwrecks.
Meloni was speaking about migration and cooperation with African countries at a launch event for a book on Pope Francis in Rome.
On Sunday, thirty people went missing, feared drowned, after the boat they were traveling from Libya capsized in bad weather.
The tragedy follows a shipwreck on Feb. 26 near the southern region of Calabria, in which at least 79 people died.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, writing by Federico Maccioni, editing by Chizu Nomiyama)