Hijacking of an Oil Tanker Is a Turning Point in Migrant Crisis

  • Italy’s Deputy Leader Salvini labeled migrants as ‘pirates’
  • EU unable for years to deal with with growing refugee crisis
Migrants disembark from the El Hiblu 1 in Valletta on March 28.Photographer: Jonathan Borg/AFP via Getty Images
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Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called them “pirates.” But the women and children who disembarked from a cargo ship hijacked by migrants in European waters were simply desperate.

They were among the 108 people escaping what human rights groups say is torture and sexual assault in Libya, a country left broken by a NATO-backed uprising that ousted a dictator but failed to bring peace.