Italy to raise penalties for smugglers after migrant tragedy

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has announced a crackdown on people smugglers, from a southern town near where a boat crowded with migrants broke apart, killing scores of people. After a Cabinet meeting in Cutro, Meloni announced a decree making migrant smuggling that results in death of migrants a distinct crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Scores of people were killed in the Feb. 26 tragedy and many are missing. Holding the Cabinet session Thursday evening near the shipwreck site stressed what Meloni called her government’s resolve to “combat the slavery of the Third Millennium.” She also insisted there had been no advance sign that the smugglers’ boat was in danger of breaking apart.