Italy - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Final death toll of Italy hydroelectric plant blast rises to 7

ITALIAN rescuers have found the bodies of the last two missing workers from an explosion at a hydroelectric plant near Bologna three days ago, a spokesperson for the fire brigade said, bringing the final death toll to seven. On Tuesday, a fire broke out on a transformer and the subsequent blast rocked the plant on the shores of the artificial Lake Suviana, owned by Enel Green Power, a unit of utility group Enel. The explosion has heightened concerns by trade unions about workplace safety in Italy, where over 1,000 people lost their lives while working last year, according to a…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Italy impounds charity ship involved in at sea dispute with Libya

NEWS

A German charity vessel was impounded by Italian authorities after it ran into a dispute with the Libyan coast guard over the rescue of as many as 100 migrants in international waters. Italy often temporarily blocks the operations of charity-operated rescue vessels based on a migration decree introduced last year by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist government. The Humanity 1, operated by the SOS Humanity organisation, was blocked for 20 days in the southern port of Crotone, where it had docked on Monday bringing ashore 77 migrants it had picked up during the weekend. A spokesperson for SOS Humanity said the charity…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Italy suspends army general over book disparaging minorities, lawyer says

WORLD

AN Italian army general reprimanded by the defence minister for publishing a book disparaging LGBT people, migrants, minorities and feminists has been suspended from duty for 11 months, his lawyer said. The opinions expressed in Roberto Vannacci's self-published book, "The World Upside Down" made headlines in the national press last year, winning applause from right-wing readers and sparking outrage among left-wing opposition parties. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in August the ministry would take disciplinary action, explaining that the book discredited the army, defence ministry and constitution. In a statement disclosing Vannacci's suspension, his lawyer Giorgio Carta said the ministry alleged the…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Police beatings of pro-Palestinian schoolchildren spark outrage in Italy

WORLD

FOOTAGE of police beating pro-Palestinian students drew broad condemnation in Italy, with the opposition calling for the interior minister to address parliament over the episode. Student marches were blocked by police in the Tuscan cities of Florence and Pisa, with images of officers vigorously using their truncheons on school-age protesters in Pisa triggering outrage on social media and from politicians. The videos showed the students, who appeared to be protesting peacefully, retreating under a hail of blows from law enforcers wearing helmets and full riot gear. "Is this how you beat your own children," one young woman is heard shouting.…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Returning sea migrants to Libya is illegal, Italy’s top court says

NEWS

ITALY'S top appeals court has established that sending sea migrants back to Libya is unlawful, a ruling hailed by charities and human rights groups. The Court of Cassation upheld the conviction of the captain of an Italian towboat, Asso 28, who in 2018 rescued 101 migrants from a rubber dinghy and returned them to Libya. The rescue took place in international waters about 105 km off Libya, the court said. Pregnant women and children were among the migrants, it added. The captain - whose name was blacked out in the ruling for privacy reasons - was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Seventeen Tunisians on migrant boat towards Italy missing

NEWS

AT least seventeen Tunisians who were on a migrant boat heading towards the Italian coast are missing, a Tunisian National Guard official said. The missing people, including a five-year-old child, had set sail on a fishing boat from Bizerte in northern Tunisia last week, the national guard official, Houssem Eddine Jebabli, told Reuters. Coast guard and Navy forces, supported by helicopter, have begun operations search operations, the official said.

Dec

2023

By CIRO DE LUCA

‘Blasphemous’ same-sex nativity scene angers conservatives in Italy

WORLD

A church nativity scene which features two mothers of the Baby Jesus, instead of the conventional Mary and Joseph figurines, has sparked anger among conservative Catholics and politicians in Italy. Nativity scenes are popular in the largely Catholic country, but in recent years they have been increasingly mired in culture wars as its society becomes more secular and multi-cultural. The priest at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, in Capocastello di Mercogliano, a hamlet in the province of Avellino about one hour's drive east of Naples, has defended its depiction of the birth of Jesus. "I wanted to show…

Nov

2023

By ANGELO AMANTE

Italy says migrant pact with Albania isn’t comparable to UK-Rwanda plan

WORLD

AN Italian plan to build migrant camps in Albania cannot be compared to Britain's bid to send irregular asylum seekers to Rwanda, Italy's foreign minister said, adding the way requests would be handled would fully protect refugees' rights. Earlier this month, the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni announced the plan, as its latest effort to deter surging migrant departures from Africa and ease pressure on centres across the country. Italy will build two reception and detention camps in Albania which will host a maximum of 3,000 migrants at any one time, marking the first-ever deal involving a non-EU country accepting…

Nov

2023

By ORIANA BOSELLI, ANTONIO DENTI and PHILIP PULLELLA

Italy’s transgender women thank pope for making them feel ‘more human’

WORLD

THE run-down beach town of Torvaianica is about 35 kms (20 miles) south of the Vatican. But for transgender women who live there it had seemed light years away until a rapprochement with the Catholic Church that began during the COVID-19 lockdown and led to an invitation to have lunch with Pope Francis on Sunday. Claudia Victoria Salas, 55, and Carla Segovia, 46, both Argentinian, were in a group of transgender people, among about 1,200 poor and homeless people, who attended the lunch on the Church's World Day of the poor. To her surprise, Salas, a former sex worker, found…

Nov

2023

By ALVISE ARMELLINI

Italy’s deal with Albania on migrant camps capped at 3,000 migrants

WORLD

ALBANIA will hold a maximum of 3,000 migrants at any one time under a deal announced this week allowing Italy to build two migrant reception and detention camps there, official documents showed. The scheme is the first example of a non-EU country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation and is part of a bloc-wide drive to clamp down on irregular immigration. "Parties agree that the total number of migrants present at the same time on Albanian territory cannot be more than 3,000," an Italo-Albanian protocol states, according to a copy seen by Reuters and other media. The figure…