2009-05-15 20:36:03 -

ROME (AP) - The U.N. refugee agency called on Italy on Friday to stop returning migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Libya because some might deserve asylum.
But Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government vowed to go ahead with the crackdown on illegal immigration.
«Among those who have been sent back to Libya, there are persons needing protection,» the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees contended in a statement.
«Italy is responsible for the consequences of sending back» those who need protection, the agency warned, contending that the new practice, launched by Berlusconi's conservative government, violates the 1951 Geneva convention.
Berlusconi insists Italy has the right to send back migrants who are found in international waters. Italian authorities say many of the thousands of illegal migrants who reach Italy yearly set out in smugglers' boats from Libyan shores.
Besides U.N. officials, the Vatican and human rights groups have deplored the Italian government crackdown on illegal migrants because of fears many deserving of political asylum won't have the opportunity to plead their case.
The government is also pushing through parliament legislation that would make it a crime to enter or stay in Italy illegally.
Returning the migrants «will go ahead, just as provided for by an accord between Italy and Libya,» Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said in a statement after he met with the U.N. agency's representative in Rome.
The minister proposed creating a sort of round-table of technical experts from the European Union, Libya, Italy and the U.N. agency «to explore the concerns raised by the United Nations.
The refugee agency described the talks with Maroni as being marked by a «constructive spirit.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome has asked the migrant problem to be put on the agenda of next month's Council of Europe meeting. Italy has been insisting other EU nations take in some of the asylum seekers.

According to the U.N. agency, half of all the people who arrived by sea last year in Italy received some kind of protection, if not political asylum. Many of them came from Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Ivory Coast, it said.
Some Italian officials have suggested that the migrants' requests for asylum be considered by officials of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime, but the U.N. refugee body dismissed that approach, saying in Libya «right now there aren't the necessary conditions» to conduct screening of potential asylum seekers.
Of the 31,000 requests Italy received last year for asylum, more than 70 percent of them came from migrants who landed the country's southern shores, the U.N. agency said.
Many of the smugglers' boats reach Italy's poorly patrolled coastline and tiny islands like Lampedusa, which is closer to Libya than to the Italian mainland.