The U.N. refugee agency publicly rebuked Italy's defense minister Monday for his "unacceptable" verbal attack against the agency and its spokeswoman over Italy's new immigration policy.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said Saturday that the UNHCR wasn't worth anything and that its spokeswoman in Italy was either inhuman or criminal for having criticized Italy's new policy of sending back migrants to Libya without first screening them for asylum.
The United Nations, the Vatican and other humanitarian and human rights group have all said the new policy violates international law and breaches the rights of refugees to request asylum.
On Monday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said La Russa's "baseless personal attacks" were "unacceptable" and wouldn't interfere with the agency's mandate to protect refugee rights.
He said his Italy spokeswoman, Laura Boldrini, and his representative here shared his "full confidence."
La Russa held firm on his insistence that Italy was well within its rights to send back migrants and was actually doing them a favor by returning them to Libya rather than letting them risk their lives in open seas in an attempt to reach Italy, only to be repatriated.
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants set off from Libya in boats organized by smugglers, paying thousands of dollars to reach Italy. If the migrants have no job awaiting them or aren't eligible for asylum, Italian authorities issue expulsion orders, but many slip through the cracks.
