Italy's migrant crackdown sparks political tensions

By Daniel Flynn and Ian Simpson

ROME (Reuters) - The deaths of 73 African migrants who drifted for three weeks in the Mediterranean without rescue have heightened concern about Italy's crackdown on immigration, opening cracks in its ruling coalition and a rift with Brussels.

Five survivors, picked up off the Italian island of Lampedusa, said their grey dinghy left Libya carrying 78 people. A day later, the motor died: two pregnant girls, raped by traffickers, were among the first to die of thirst and exposure.

Italy is the first landing-point in Europe for many migrants from Africa and tragedies in the Mediterranean have become a fixture of the migration season, but since Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi toughened its immigration laws, things have changed.

The migrants said a dozen fishing boats passed but only one answered their calls, throwing food but refusing to board.

"There used to be competition among fishermen to save lives, but...with Italy's new law making immigration a crime, they've become too afraid," said Laura Boldrini of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. "The Mediterranean has become a No Man's Land."

In Italy, the survivors were placed under guard. Unless they win asylum, they may face detention under legislation passed in July making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or help one.

That followed a deal Italy struck with Libya in May enabling it to return migrants stopped in international waters to Libya: the UNHCR has said that arrangement, the fruit of Berlusconi's closer ties with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, consigns hundreds of asylum-seekers to inhumane camps in North Africa.

Rome's hard line has strained relations with the European Commission, which last month called for an investigation into the repatriations to Libya. Berlusconi threatened to block all EU business unless Commission spokespeople were silenced.