146 migrants land in Italy in UN-organized Libya evacuation

Migrants carry their luggage at Misrata airport, before their deportation and resettlement in Italy, in Misrata, Libya April 29, 2019. (REUTERS)

A family disembarks from an Italian military aircraft arriving from Misrata, Libya, at Pratica di Mare military airport, near Rome, Monday, April 29, 2019. (AP)

• Under anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Italy has essentially closed its ports to migrants fleeing Libya aboard smugglers boats

ROME: A group of 146 asylum-seekers have arrived in Italy as part of a UN-backed humanitarian evacuation from Libya.
The UN refugee agency says it’s the fifth such evacuation since 2017, though previous airlifts have taken migrants to Niger and elsewhere.
The group arrived Monday at a Rome military base. Dozens of the asylum-seekers are minors, many of whom are unaccompanied. They hail from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Ethiopia.
Under anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Italy has essentially closed its ports to migrants fleeing Libya aboard smugglers boats.
Salvini’s deputy, Stefano Candiani, said Monday that such evacuations, in which the UN screens asylum-seekers in situ, are the way people deserving of protection should arrive in Europe.