Around 7,800 of the migrants and asylum-seekers arrived in Italy, while Malta received around 600, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of those making the journey departed from North Africa, principally Libya (around 6,700 people). The remaining 1,700 crossed from Greece and Turkey, landing in southern Italy.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the main places of origin of these migrants and asylum-seekers, particularly Somalia and Eritrea. Other countries of origin include Egypt, Pakistan and Syria. Nationals of Gambia, Mali and Afghanistan also make these crossings, but in smaller numbers, noted UNHCR.

The agency has also recorded some 40 deaths in the first six months of 2013 by people attempting to cross the Mediterranean between North Africa and Italy.

“The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world, as well as a dangerous sea frontier for migrants and asylum-seekers en route to southern Europe,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards.

“In view of the perils, UNHCR again calls on all vessels at sea to be on alert for migrants and refugees in need of rescue,” he said at a news conference in Geneva. “We also renew our call to all shipmasters in the Mediterranean to remain vigilant and to carry out their duty of rescuing vessels in distress.

“International and European law also requires States to ensure that people intercepted or rescued at sea who seek asylum can gain access to territory and to an asylum procedure where their international protection needs or claims can be examined,” he added.

UNHCR noted that the peak crossing period for migrants and asylum-seekers runs from May to September.

“At this time of year, when there is an increase in the number of people trying to make this perilous journey, it is essential to ensure that the long-established tradition of rescue at sea is upheld by all and that international maritime law is adhered to,” said Mr. Edwards.

Last year, some 15,000 migrants and asylum-seekers reached Italy and Malta by sea, while almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea.

How to form a government

The centre left coalition under Pier Luigi Bersani has managed to acquire an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, but the 310 sits of the Senate are divided between the four parties in a way that nobody has an absolute majority. In the Italian political system a government has to have a majority in both Houses.

In any case the initiative is now in the hands of Bersani who needs a government partner with enough votes in the Senate, to be added to his own 121. This has to be either Silvio Berlusconi, whose centre right coalition got 117 Senate sits or Beppe Grillo’s “5 star movement” with its 54 senators. As for the outgoing Prime Minister, Mario Monti, his centre party got only 18 Senate sits, with a quite disappointing overall performance in this election. Probably it didn’t do any good to Professor’s political party the backing he got from Brussels. Berlin had the wisdom not to openly support him.

Low alarm in markets

It goes without saying that capital market fund managers have the most pressing and vested interests for a swift conclusion of negotiations over the formation of a government in Rome. It was encouraging however to see yesterday the bond market to regain confidence after some initial highs. Despite the large losses of 4.5% in the Milan stock exchange, the yield of 10 year benchmark Italian sovereign bond increased only by 31 basic units (0.31 percentage points), meaning that investors asked only for a small increase in the risk premium they demand, to continue holding such securities.

Understandably bond investors have all the reasons of the world to expect a swift solution in the Italian political stalemate, being it a grand coalition between Bersani and Berlusconi or a minor coalition between the centre left and Beppe Grillo. In either option the stakes will be very high. The first to know the news will have the prerogative in the market. Capital markets however kept their composure yesterday, but what if the new government comes out with a programme diverging widely from Monti’s austerity policies? In such a case the selloff of the Italian bonds could take large proportions. In reality markets are much more interested in the content of a possible government programme, rather than in the names undesigning it.

What if?

Returning to the introduction of this article the fact that the Italian debt has reached the region of the €2 trillion feels like a Damocles Sword above the entire Eurozone. If Italy starts looking incapable, of taking care of its own problems by itself, the Entire Eurozone will be again in peril. In such a case there will be no other solution than an intervention by the European Central Bank in the capital markets of Italy and Spain. The ECB can use its unlimited resources, in order to keep the lending interest rates for those two countries at sustainable levels. The central bank has already stated some months ago it could undertake such action. Why not now if developments reach a risky conjuncture? The volume of the Italian debt is so huge that in an emergency, there will be no other way available to refinance it, than with the freshly printed money of ECB’s.

In such an eventuality the Eurozone will face a long period of increased inflationary pressures. Such a prospect though apart from some negative effects on nominal idle wealth, will have positive repercussions on real growth, through the weakening of the euro parities. A cheaper euro however will help everybody to export more to third countries. Italy will be the first Eurozone economy to profit from such an eventuality.

If such a prospect materialises the entire atmosphere in the Eurozone will change and the euro will return to the low region of 1.25 with the dollar or maybe lower. This will be the best news for many including the Italian exporters and the tourism business. What else the Italian and all Eurozone exporters could pray for?

From the Europeansting.com [by permission]

Italy’s FTSE MIB index fell 4.7%, while London’s FTSE 100 shed 1.5% and share markets in Frankfurt and Paris also fell more than 2%. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.55% and Asian markets lost between 0.7% and 2.2%. The yield on Italian government bonds rose sharply, implying markets are more wary of lending to Italy.

What happened in Italy?

Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left bloc won the lower house vote but has failed to secure a majority in the Senate, and control of both houses is needed to govern. A protest movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo won 25%, and a bloc led by current Prime Minister Mario Monti came fourth, with only a 10%.

The outcome of the election, which finds Italy in deep recession and tough austerity measures, was so close that the margin of victory was less than 1% in both houses of parliament. Centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani commented to BBC correspondent Katya Adler :”It is clear to everyone that a very delicate situation is emerging for the country,”

Mr Berlusconi ‘conceded’ to his opponents the lower house; however,  he stated that he would not associate with Mr Monti’s centrist bloc because the prime minister’s poor showing was down to popular discontent with his austerity measures.

The final equilibrium is very fragile: Bersani has the majority, as the winning bloc is guaranteed 340 seats, but the margin is extremely small. Therefore, on a final exam, Italy is walking on a fine line, and stability is not what the country seems to go for.

The results produced a mixed reaction in Europe.

From Bruxelles the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, stated RAI radio that the result is very difficult for Italy, e for Europe: “There is a need for a stable government” because Italy is a member of G8 and therefore a strong player in Europe.

In Germany, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Guido Westerwelle, hopes for the creation of a functional government in the interest of the whole Europe; he also urged Italy to continue its reforms, and called for a government to be formed “as quickly as possible”.

Garcia-Margallo, his Spanish counterpart, expressed “extreme concern” about the financial consequences of the Italian elections.

It is a mystery where Italy is going. The only man that might make sense of it is Grillo; the Genoese comic, who toured around the country throughout the election campaign and based his speeches on insults against a discredited political class.

“We’ve started a war of generations,” Mr Grillo said in an audio statement on his website,(www.beppegrillo.it) : “They are all losers, they’ve been there for 25 to 30 years and they’ve led this country to catastrophe.”

Secured on ferries, they are sent to Greece regardless of the age group they belong to. As a result children as young as 13, are sent back by Italian authorities within hours of their arrival without adequate consideration of their particular needs as children or their desire to apply for asylum.

In the 45-page report, “Turned Away: Summary Returns of Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Adult Asylum Seekers from Italy to Greece,” the failure of Italian border police is documented; in the Adriatic ports of Ancona, Bari, Brindisi, and Venice the authorities are unable to screen adequately for people in need of protection, in violation of Italy’s legal obligations. Human Rights Watch interviewed 29 children who were summarily returned to Greece from Italian ports, 20 of them in 2012.

“Every year hundreds of people risk life and limb hiding in or under trucks and cars on ferries crossing the Adriatic Sea,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Italy sends them straight back to Greece.”

Placed in the custody of the captains of commercial ferries, adults and children alike are confined on board ships during the return journey to Greece in places such as makeshift holding cells or engine rooms and sometimes denied adequate food.

The international community is taking actions against Italy, but the violation continues at the expenses of human lives.

Stowaways on ferries from Greece, including children as young as 13, are sent back by Italian authorities within hours without adequate consideration of their particular needs as children or their desire to apply for asylum.

The report, “Turned Away: Summary Returns of Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Adult Asylum Seekers from Italy to Greece,” documents the failure of Italian border police at the Adriatic ports of Ancona, Bari, Brindisi, and Venice to screen adequately for people in need of protection, in violation of Italy’s legal obligations.

“Every year hundreds of people risk life and limb hiding in or under trucks and cars on ferries crossing the Adriatic Sea,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Too often Italy sends them straight back to Greece despite appalling conditions and treatment there.”

Back in Greece, unaccompanied children and asylum seekers, like all migrants, are vulnerable to law enforcement abuse, degrading conditions of detention, and a hostile environment marked by xenophobic violence, Human Rights Watch said.

Italian and international law prohibit the removal of unaccompanied children without a determination that it is in their best interest. Yet, Human Rights Watch met with 13 children ages 13 to 17 who had been summarily returned to Greece. None of them were given access to a guardian or social services, as required by Italian and international law.

Although Italian government policy is to give an individual who claims to be a child the benefit of the doubt, Human Rights Watch research indicates that this policy is not being followed.

Overwhelming evidence of chronic problems with Greece’s asylum system and detention conditions has led to landmark European court rulings barring returns to that country under the Dublin II Regulation, which generally requires the first EU country of entry to process an asylum claim. Numerous EU countries have suspended transfers of asylum seekers to Greece as a result.

The Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Nils Muiznieks, and the UN special rapporteur on the rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau, have both urged Italy to refrain from summary returns to Greece.

2009 quake left the city of Aquila in central Italy in rubble. Historic buildings crumbled in the 6.3 magnitude quake, 309 died, and thousands were left homeless.

Today, a team of Italian scientists have been found guilty of manslaughter for failing to warn citizens of the massive earthquake about to happen. The judicial decision has infuriated the global scientific community.

The seven accused had been part of the region’s Major Risks Committee which had met on March 31 2009, six days before the earthquake. They issued a statement designed to reassure residents after studying tremors in the area, which stressed it was impossible to say when another event may occur.

In court, prosecutor Fabio Picuti said they had given “an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken analysis.”

Immediately after the quake charges were brought against six government scientists, and an official, for not sufficiently warning people of the risks of another seismic event. The case has been closed only today.

Defence lawyers said the buildings in Aquila were “medieval”, therefore not safe, or strong. He stated that earthquakes cannot be predicted, and quoted some statements from the  5,000 letters sent by scientists from around the world to the Italian Government.

The only hope the scientists have now is to remain free from jail until an appeals process is completed. Legal experts are feverishly working on the case; however, the Italian Government seems to be adamant in making an example of these men.

“What we are seeing now is a huge process of urbanization in the south which goes hand in hand with development. You cannot have one without the other. The problem is that the institutional architecture cannot keep pace with urbanization,” said the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Joan Clos at the opening of the 6th World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy.

“If there is no proper anticipation urbanization becomes a mess and if you try to correct the problem afterwards it costs a lot to fix. Countries are overwhelmed by urbanization. It’s like a tsunami. Urbanization goes faster than the capacity to manage it,” Clos said. “We need to re-design our cities to face these challenges.”

Clos stressed the importance of urban planning at national, state, and local levels to avoid informal settlements and slums, as well as high concentrations of people in mega capitals.

He stated that planning policies would help countries provide their citizens with jobs and prosperity while still tackling environmental challenges.

The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.

Organized jointly by UN-Habitat, the Government of Italy, the Campania Region and the city of Naples, the theme for this year’s meeting, which will be attended by more than 3,000 participants, is The Urban Future.

“In 2011 the Italian Government caused the crisis in Lampedusa by failing to transfer people to the mainland. Europe left the islanders utterly alone as they valiantly strove to help all those arriving”, said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office. “This was certainly a crisis for a tiny island, but a very minor challenge for the vast resources of Europe.”

“Despite taking only a tiny proportion of the world’s refugees, EU countries have turned a blind eye to the immense human suffering and are instead spending billions to prevent people reaching this continent”, said Beger. “People are dying on our doorstep. Shouldn’t we help them rather than continuing to force them back?”

Activists from 20 countries have gathered on the island which last year received thousands of migrants and refugees arriving from North Africa. Islanders and activists will march into the sea to form a giant ‘SOS’ addressed to the authorities in Europe and Italy. They will highlight the suffering of those who arrive in overcrowded boats and the need urgently to reverse European migration policy. The action will also commemorate the heroic efforts by Lampedusa’s 6,000 inhabitants.

Last week, 54 people died of thirst after their boat was stranded in the Mediterranean. Some 1,500 died in 2011 attempting to cross that sea despite shipping and aircraft surveillance reaching record levels with NATO’s intervention in Libya.

“Despite promising to act transparently, in April Italy signed another shameful secret agreement with Libya, perpetuating the previous government’s policy. Libya continues to torture and persecute refugees and migrants on its territory“, said Beger.

Spain, Italy, Candada, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, announced the expulsions after talks with each other on what they called intolerable levels of violence, according to Reuters reports.

British Foreign Minister William Hague said the expulsions aimed to tell Assad’s government  that time was running out for them to comply with the peace plan.

French President Francois Hollande said the Syrian ambassador was to be expelled, hours after Australia announced a similar move, as France is preparing to host a new Friends of Syria meeting in early July, President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday, AP reported.

Spain is also expelling its Syrian ambassador, DPA reported, while Canada said all remaining diplomats are being told to leave.

Italy declared the Syrian ambassador and other embassy staff  “persona non grata,” the foreign ministry said,

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s 11-year-rule broke out in March 2011, most of them opposition supporters killed by the army or security forces.

Meanwhile, Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy, has held talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, as the UN human rights office has declared that more than 90 people who were killed in the Houla region were “summarily executed”.

Annan expressed what his spokesperson, Ahmed Fawzi, called “the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria” when he met Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera.

One person working a night shift died in the collapse of a plastic-producing factory near Ferrara and two others were killed in the collapse of another building, rescue services said on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

Italy’s Sky TG24 showed images of the collapsed ceramics factory where the two workers were reportedly killed.

Thousands of people in the area poured into the streets after the quake, felt in the major towns of Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo, Verona and Mantua in Northern Italy.

The eartquake  lasted around 20 seconds and was followed by several aftershocks. The quake, which initially registered at magnitude 6.3, was centered 35km north-northwest of Bologna in northern Italy at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the USGS said. The initial quake was followed about an hour later by a 4.9-magnitude temblor, Italy’s civil protection said. And it was preceded by a magnitude-4.1 quake in the same area, according to SKY TG24

In late January, a 5.4-magnitude quake shook northern Italy. Some office buildings in Milan were evacuated as a precaution and there were scattered reports of falling masonry and cracks in buildings.

The last major earthquake to hit Italy was a 6.3 magnitude quake in the central Italian city of L’Aquila in 2009, leaving behind nearly 300 people dead.