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WORLD NEWS Friday 10 March 2023
Italy to stiffen smuggling punishment after migrant tragedy

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Earlier this week, Italy’s in-
Associated Press terior minister, who imple-
ROME (AP) — Italian Premier ments the government’s
Giorgia Meloni on Thursday migration policy, insisted
brought her planned crack- in a speech to lawmakers
down on people smugglers that Frontex in its commu-
to a southern town near nication to Italian authori-
the coast where a wooden ties hadn’t indicated any
boat packed with migrants sign of distress and no one
broke apart, killing scores aboard the ill-fated boat
and leaving many missing. had sent out any alarm.
In a symbolic move to Even as Meloni’s govern-
highlight what she has de- ment presses the crack-
scribed as her conserva- down, hundreds more
tive government’s genuine migrants have stepped
concern for migrant lives, ashore on the southern is-
Meloni and her ministers land of Lampedusa in re-
flew to Calabria, in the toe cent days.
of the Italian peninsula, to Many arrived without need-
hold a Cabinet session in ing rescue. Italy’s coast
Cutro’s town council hall. guard and border police
Meloni, anti-migrant leader boats plucked dozens of
Matteo Salvini, who heads From left, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Infrastructures and others to safety from the
the infrastructure ministry Transports Minister Matteo Salvini arrive in Cutro, southern Italy, Thursday, March 9, 2023. sea this week in the cen-
which includes the coast Associated Press tral Mediterranean. Among
guard, and Foreign Minis- to so-called humanitarian crashed into a sandbank humanitarian groups have them were 45 migrants,
ter Antonio Tajani, posed corridors to Europe as they just off Steccato di Cutro decried Italian authorities’ including five newborns,
for photos outside the town flee persecution or war in beach, started taking on decision not to quickly dis- rescued on Wednesday,
hall after she was greeted their homelands. water and splintered apart. patch coast guard rescue and another 38 saved by
by the local bishop and Many of the dead and sur- Eighty people survived, boats after a Frontex patrol the coast guard after their
other dignitaries. vivors in the Feb. 26 trag- many of them staggering aircraft spotted the wood- boat sank in Malta’s air-
The Cabinet was widely ex- edy were fleeing from Af- ashore on the beach after en boat about 40 nautical and-rescue sector.
pected to approve far stiff- ghanistan, Iran, Pakistan swimming from the wreck. miles (72 kilometers) off Ca- In another Italian coast
er punishments for smug- and Syria, hoping to join Dozens are still believed to labria’s coast hours before guard operation, 20 mi-
glers, who guide unsea- family members in Italy and be missing after the wreck the pre-dawn wreck on Cu- grants were saved when
worthy boats crowded with other Western European of the boat, which survivors tro’s beach in adverse sea their boat ran into trouble
migrants to Italy’s shores. countries. said had set out from Tur- conditions. after setting out from Sfax,
Also expected to be ad- Earlier this week, a 72nd key with around 180 pas- Frontex is the European Tunisia, and a woman’s
opted are measures to fa- body was recovered, sengers days earlier. Union’s border and coastal body was recovered, Ital-
cilitate refugees’ access nine days after the boat Opposition leaders and protection agency. ian state television said. q

China criticizes Dutch plan to curb

access to chip tools

BEIJING (AP) — China’s chip industry. “We firmly oppose the
government on Thursday Washington in October Netherlands’s interference
criticized the Netherlands blocked Chinese access and restriction with admin-
for joining Washington in to U.S. tools to make ad- istrative means of normal
blocking Chinese access vanced chips that it said economic and trade ex-
to technology to manufac- might be used in weapons changes between Chinese
ture advanced processor or in equipment for the rul- and Dutch enterprises,”
chips on security and hu- ing Communist Party’s sur- said the spokeswoman,
man rights grounds. veillance apparatus. The Mao Ning. “We have made
A Dutch minister told law- Biden administration is lob- complaints to the Dutch The logo of ASML, a leading maker of semiconductor production
makers Wednesday that bying European and Asian side.” equipment, hangs on the head office in Veldhoven, Netherlands,
exports of equipment allies to tighten their own Mao appealed to the Monday, Jan. 30, 2023.
that uses ultraviolet light controls. Netherlands to “safeguard Associated Press
to etch circuits on chips A Chinese foreign ministry the stability of the interna- their speed and reduces chips used in autos and
would be restricted on se- spokeswoman complained tional industrial and supply power demand. The Dutch most consumer electronics
curity grounds. ASML of that “an individual coun- chain.” government has prohib- but not those used in smart-
the Netherlands is the only try,” a reference to the ASML’s extreme-ultraviolet, ited ASML from exporting its phones, servers and other
global supplier. Industry ex- United States, was trying to or EUV, equipment uses most advanced machines high-end products.
perts say a lack of access “safeguard its own hege- light to etch microscopi- to China since 2019, but the Dutch Prime Minister Mark
to ASML’s most advanced mony” by abusing national cally precise circuits into company is allowed to sup- Rutte and U.S. President
technology is a serious security as an excuse to silicon, allowing them to ply lower-quality systems. Joe Biden held talks in
handicap for China’s ef- “deprive China of its right be packed more closely Chinese manufacturers January on ASML’s chip
forts to develop its own to development.” together. That increases can produce low-end machines.q