by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people took to the streets of the Italian capital Saturday to protest against the new government's hardline policies against migrants landing on Italy's shores.
Organized by the Unione Sidicato di Base (USB), a trade union umbrella group, the demonstration featured thousands of Italians and migrants together carrying placards and walking a 2.5-km route through the streets of Rome's historical center.
There were no firm estimates on the number of participants, but the Italian police said they had prepared for around 20,000 demonstrators. There were no significant reports of violence.
The demonstration came little more than two weeks after the installation of a new Italian government led by law professor Giuseppe Conte and backed by the League, a nationalist and anti-migrant political party strongest in the northern part of the country.
Italy attracted worldwide attention a week ago when it refused to let a migrant rescue ship, the Aquarius, come ashore with 629 migrants aboard. After the Aquarius floated at sea for two days, Spain said it would accept the migrants.
French President Emmanuel Macron was among the high-profile voices criticizing Italy: "If the French coast had been the boat's closest shore it would have been allowed to dock."
Macron's remarks on the topic sparked a threat from Conte to cancel a summit with Macron Friday. But the meeting went ahead, with migration as the central topic. Conte emerged from the discussion eager to move on from the recent news.
"The moment has come to change the page," Conte wrote on social media just after the Friday summit. "Whoever sets foot in Italy, sets foot in Europe. And nobody in Europe can think of... washing their hands of this problem."
Conte called on other European states to help front-line countries like Italy confront the problem. But his statement also indicated that all countries -- including Italy -- should do their part.
But if Conte's statement indicated any change at heart at the top of the Italian government, that was contradicted by the head of the League, Matteo Salvini. Italy's newly-installed minister of the interior, Salvini, said Saturday that two more rescue boats aiding migrants off the shore of Libya and possibly headed toward Italy would be turned away like the Aquarius.
A poll released Friday show that nearly three out of five Italians support policies to curb migrant arrivals. But that view was not reflected in Saturday's march.
"I don't know what is happening with the world, but I think that developed countries like Italy have a kind of moral obligation to help those in need," Annalisa Presutti, a 29-year-old pharmacist who participated in the march, told Xinhua. "I don't think we can turn our backs on vulnerable people who need help. But that's what our government wants to do."
Baba Keita, a 30-year-old construction worker who came to Italy two years ago from the African nation of Mali, said most of those trying to reach Italy and Europe from Africa are desperate.
"It takes a lot of courage to leave your home and make the difficult journey," Keita said in an interview. "It makes me sad to think of someone who made the whole trip, had their life saved at sea, and then would not be allowed to come to shore."
