UN warns on deportations, but Italy vows to continue
The United Nations refugee agency warned Italy on Friday its policy of towing migrant boats back to the Libyan coast broke international conventions, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government vowed to continue.
Laurens Jolles, UNHCR's representative in Italy, said that such repatriations contradicted the 1951 Geneva Convention, which was applicable even in international waters. UNHCR says the hundreds of people deported in recent weeks included asylum seekers and calls on Italy to accept them back.. (Reuters)
