The last impetus could have been given by the Pope. He insistently appealed to thousands of people in St. Peter's Square on Sunday to finally create a "humanitarian corridor" for the refugees, who are being held in the camps in the midst of the war zones of Libya under the worst possible conditions. "Especially for the women, the children, the sick."
That's how it happened. On Monday, landed at the Italian military airport Pratica di Mare, not far from Rome, a plane that was launched in the Libyan Misurata and had 147 refugees on board. Most came from Eritrea and Somalia before their flight ended in the North African terror camps. Some come from Sudan, Syria and Ethiopia. 68 refugees are minors, 48 of them unaccompanied by parents or relatives.
AP
Refugees from Libya reach Italy
Like Mohammed Abdul Aziz, 15, from Somalia. He had been sold several times during his escape, he told the reporter of the Catholic bishopric newspaper "Avvenire" when he arrived in Italy. Since January 2017 he was in a Libyan camp.
Or like Kufa, also 15 years old: After he had paid for the European trip over the sea, he was simply unloaded by the smugglers at another smuggling gang. She also wanted money, which Kufa did not have and could not earn. They stung him in the eye with a knife, he told Avvenire.
Now the two are suddenly one of the few who are just allowed to come to Europe. They get a visa, but of course "they are under security control", as Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Stefano Candiani, explained on their arrival. After a first phase in a reception center, they are distributed to various state or charitable institutions in central Italy.
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Of course, the action did not start until Sunday, after the Pope's call. There is a longer lead between state institutions, the UN refugee agency and charitable organizations, such as the Community of Sant'Egidio. But the final release, it is said, was done very shortly before the action.
Coalition peace or Political PR
The relief flight is politically extremely sensitive. After all, the Lega is constantly gaining more followers with a massive anti-migrant propaganda. At the weekend, in the local elections in Sicily, she even got for the first time a mayor mandate - where she had called the Sicilians as "earth eaters" not so long ago.
Virtually every day, Lega boss Matteo Salvini posts or tweets a "foreigners are criminal" - "want to infiltrate Italy" - "need to get out" message. And he is Minister of the Interior. Why does he now bring 147 refugees by plane into the country?
Maybe because it was the only chance to avoid another major conflict with the coalition partner. Because the five-star movement, which is losing ground all over the country, locates its voters to a considerable extent in a green social environment. And there you do not agree with the stark anti-foreigner policy of the Lega. The stars therefore wanted partout such a symbolic action to sharpen their own social profile.
Or maybe because you can show that you are not a monster, but a devout Catholic - Salvini always has a rosary between his fingers. And that Italy, his Italy, which he has long dominated, brings the people who really need it into the country and helps them. Although Lega Secretary of State Candiani emphasized on the "welcome" greeting in Pratica di Mare, this was something "quite different from the uncontrolled tributaries that we want to stop as comprehensively as possible". But at the same time it sets an example that Italy rejects anyone who has "a right" to enter.
We are not monsters
Now, as Salvini's tactics might be, those who like to portray him as inhuman have to open a "humanitarian corridor" to Libya to pick up particularly vulnerable refugees there. If they do that, then - Salvini - he faked them. If they do not do it, they can no longer pretend to be the better people.
The hard core of the Lega, however, was against it. Salvini has approved the action, but has not traveled to the reception for security - although he is otherwise constantly looking for the cameras - but has only sent a Secretary of State. In his approximately 30 tweets of the last 13 hours, he has reported intensely on an illegal refugee who had attacked uniformed officials at a check. And he has explicitly sent "thanks and greetings to the Italian men" who are in Libya right now to "block the smugglers".