Italy official calls for exit strategy on migrant boat patrols

epa04186845 An image made available on 30 April 2014 shows migrants being rescued during operation ‘Mare Nostrum’ in the southern Mediterranean sea off the Italian coast, 29 April 2014. The Mare Nostrum (‘Our Sea’) mission started in October following two fatal shipwrecks – one near Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost point, and the other in Maltese waters – in which more than 400 people died. The Mediterranean boat patrols credited for saving tens of thousands of migrants’ lives may have to be stopped, an Italian government official suggested, because they were encouraging more people to embark on dangerous sea crossings. EPA/GIUSEPPE LAMI