The President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, expresses her deep sorrow for the many lives cut short by human traffickers. It is criminal to put a boat that is barely 20 metres long out to sea with as many as 200 people on board and with bad weather forecast. It is inhumane to trade the lives of men, women and children for the price of the ‘ticket’ they have paid with the false prospect of a safe journey. The Government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by calling for maximum cooperation from the countries of departure and of origin. The actions of those who today speculate on these deaths, after heightening the illusion of unregulated immigration, speak for themselves.