The compassion of the right: Italy rescues 1,000 boat migrants, sparking right-wing protest

A rise in the number of migrant boats setting out across the Mediterranean for Italy sparked tension on Saturday, after rescue workers said some 1,000 people had been picked up in one day.

"Italy's military ships are bringing to Sicily another 1,000 illegal immigrants, picked up 30 miles off the Libyan coast," Matteo Salvini, head of the Northern League party, wrote on Facebook.

Prime Minister Matteo "Renzi and (interior minister Angelino) Alfano are continuing the 'taxi service' to help smugglers.

"I would use the ships to defend our borders. You?" he said.


Migrants arrive in the port of Lampedusa following a rescue operation off the coast of Sicily,
in this videograb, on April 5, 2015. A rise in the number of migrant boats setting out across the
Mediterranean for Italy sparked tension on Saturday, after rescue workers said some 1,000 people
had been picked up in one day.

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/italy-rescues-1000-boat-migrants-sparking-right-wing-protest-20150411

This story is 10 days old so it came before the drowning of 1,000 migrants this week but it does show the level of the far-right's lack of compassion. Our far-right wants us to build an ever-higher wall on our border. Italy's far-right wants their navy to 'defend our borders' against would-be migrants.

At least in this story, the Northern League did not explain what that 'defending' would look like. Do you sink their boats? Tow them back to within 30 miles of Libya (where international waters end) and cut them loose? The PR folks on their far-right must be smart enough to know that "defend our borders" sounds good. "Sink them" or "Tow them to the middle nowhere and abandon them" does not have the same ring to it.