Italy Orders Boats With 1,000 Migrants To Go Back To Libya

Daily Mail: Italy orders seven boats with 1,000 migrants on board to go back to Libya days after turning away another ship carrying 234 people

* NGO Proactiva Open Arms said Italy wants the Libyan coast guard to intervene
* The Italian coast guard apparently told the aid group: 'We don't need your help'
* Hard-line minister Matteo Salvini told NGOs not to 'interrupt' Libyan authorities

Italy is seeking to have seven boats carrying roughly 1,000 migrants needing rescue off Libya taken back to North Africa, according to a Spanish aid group.

Proactiva Open Arms, which has rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean, said the Italians want the Libyan coast guard to conduct the rescues and return the migrants.

Proactiva said in a tweet that Italian coast guard authorities who coordinate rescues sent out advisories to all ships in the area but told the aid group: 'We don't need your help.'

In a tweet on Sunday, hard-line interior minister Matteo Salvini said: 'It's right that the Libyan authorities intervene, as they've been doing for days, without having the NGOs interrupt them and disturb them.'

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WNU Editor: Italy is making it very clear to the NGOs that are picking up migrants in the Mediterranean that they are through working with them, and that since their actions are only helping the smugglers, they will seize their ships. In response to both Italy's s and Malta's refusal to permit ships to enter their ports, my prediction is that Spain is now going to be the primary point of entry for migrants looking for a way to enter Europe .... Hundreds of migrants rescued off the coast of Spain (France 24).