Italy to raise penalties for smugglers after migrant tragedy

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni unveiled her right-wing government's plans to crack down on people smugglers following a Cabinet meeting she led Thursday in the southern town near the beach where a wooden boat packed with migrants broke apart 11 days earlier, killing scores and leaving many missing.

By holding the meeting in Cutro, Calabria, instead of the capital, Rome, Meloni said she was stressing her resolve to “combat the slavery of the Third Millennium.”

She announced that her Cabinet had approved a decree establishing a new crime — people smuggling that results in death of migrants — punishable by up to 30 years in prison, an exceptionally stiff sentence for crimes involving facilitating illegal immigration.

According to details of the approved decrees, provided by Meloni's office Thursday night, the punishment for the death of a sole migrant could bring up to 24 years in prison.

Many of the dead and survivors in the Feb. 26 tragedy had fled Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Syria, hoping to join family members in Italy and other Western European countries.

Earlier this week, a 72nd body was recovered from the shipwreck. The overcrowded boat smashed into a sandbank just off Steccato di Cutro beach, started taking on water and splintered apart.

Eighty people survived, many of them staggering ashore on the beach after swimming from the wreck. Dozens are still believed to be missing because survivors said the boat had set out from Turkey with around 180 passengers.

"Our task is to find solutions to the problem, and today, as I said, the best way to honor those victims is to do what one can so that this tragedy isn't repeated,'' Meloni said.

The Cabinet decree must be converted into law by Parliament, where Meloni's right-wing coalition holds a...