ROME Oct 25 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday said that the country cannot handle the same number of migrant arrivals next year that it has seen in 2016, calling on other European countries to do more.
In an interview with RAI state television, Renzi repeated a threat to veto the disbursement of European Union funds to countries that refuse to help Italy and Greece, who have taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past three years.
"Italy cannot take another year like the one we've just had," Renzi said during the recording of a talk show. He said the flow of arrivals must be curbed by March, without saying what would happen if it was not limited.
From Friday until Sunday, Italy's coastguard coordinated more than 6,000 sea rescues, bringing arrivals so far this year to almost 155,000, which was the total for all of 2015. In 2014 there were 170,000 arrivals.
Another 500 people were rescued from four different boats on Tuesday, the coastguard said in a statement.
For a third year, people smugglers are taking advantage of chaos in Libya to send migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Africa and the Middle East on overcrowded boats toward Italy and the EU.
More than 3,100 have died or disappeared trying to cross the the Mediterranean from North Africa this year, the International Organization for Migration estimates.
The prime minister has frequently denounced a lack of European solidarity amid the migrant crisis as Italy seeks EU approval for an expansionary budget that includes some 3.9 billion euros ($4.25 billion) in spending on migrants next year.
Renzi sharply rebuffed European Commission criticism of his budget for raising previously agreed deficit and debt targets.
"Instead of opening their mouths, they should open their wallets," he said. ($1 = 0.9184 euros) (Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio, Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Alison Williams)
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Libyan interference in rescue may have caused 30 migrant deaths -German group
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By Andrea Shalal
BERLIN Oct 25 (Reuters) - A German-based humanitarian group said on Tuesday up to 30 African migrants may have died because of what it called "aggressive" Libyan interference in a rescue operation outside Libyan territorial waters.
The Sea-Watch group released new photographs of Friday's incident, including one showing a Libyan coast guard vessel pulled up next to the migrant boat and another of a crew member in military uniform aboard the rubber dinghy.
Spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said Sea-Watch crew members observed at least one Libyan coast guard member kicking and hitting migrants with an undefined object, possibly a stick or cable, and spurring some migrants to panic and jump overboard.
He said the Libyan vessel also rammed one of the dinghy's two rubber tubes, causing it to rapidly deflate and dump the estimated 150-160 people on board into the Mediterranean.
A spokesman for the Libyan naval forces in Tripoli said on Saturday its crew boarded the rubber dinghy but denied that the migrant boat was attacked.
Aided by people smugglers based in Libya, some 150,000 people have set off for Italy in unseaworthy boats so far this year, with more than 3,740 having died or disappeared during the crossing of the southern Mediterranean.
Since Friday alone, more than 6,000 men, women and children have been rescued at sea.
Sea-Watch said the Libyan coast guard boat sped off at high speed with its lights off after the migrants - all men plus a few boys from sub-Saharan Africa - began to jump overboard.
"Our crew did everything to save as many lives as possible, but unfortunately, we have up to 30 casualties," Neugebauer told Reuters after a Sea-Watch news conference.
BODIES FLOATED OUT OF REACH
Sea-Watch crew brought four corpses on board, but were unable to retrieve many others that floated away, he added.
Libyan naval forces said the incident occurred in Libyan territorial waters, which end 12 nautical miles from the coast.
Sea-Watch released detailed course charts which it said showed the migrant boat was at least 14 nautical miles off the North African state's coast.
Neugebauer said the Libyan coast guard vessel also carried out aggressive manoeuvres to separate the Sea-Watch rescue ship from the migrant boat, preventing crew from handing out life vests and flotation devices.
Communication failed due to language barriers, although the Libyan forces shouted "migrants," and "out, out," gesturing at Sea-Watch to leave the area, the group's report said.
Migrant rescues are often complicated in Libya by the U.N.-backed Tripoli government's struggle to impose its authority on a country where hundreds of armed militias flourish.
German military officials and rescue groups cite numerous incidents in which militias posing as coast guards interfered with rescues or tried to remove motors from migrant boats.
EU military officials are due to start a two-month training for up to 100 Libyan coast guard personnel this week to teach basic skills such as navigation, seamanship, dealing with fire and other risks on board, maintenance, search and rescue, and working with naval forces from other countries.
Sea-Watch planned to continue carrying out rescues as needed, but was weighing its options for the future.
"We are angry that the European Union forces us to go out there again and again," Neugebauer said. "If the whole burden stays on civilian (humanitarian) organisations, this is simply a task we cannot take." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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