Protests were held as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni held a cabinet meeting on Thursday in Cutro, the Calabrian town where at least 72 people died in a shipwreck last month.
The rightwing cabinet has passed tougher laws against people smugglers, including jail terms of up to 30 years for those who cause the death of more than one person, as well as measures to boost legal routes through which foreign workers can enter Italy.
After the tragedy, Meloni wanted to give a symbolic and concrete signal, and we wanted to have this cabinet meeting," Meloni said at a press conference after the meeting.
Meloni defended her government's immigration policies, which some claim may have contributed to the tragedy on 26 February off the coast of Steccato di Cutro, a beach area popular in summer. Italy's rescue authorities are being investigated over allegations that they didn't act quickly enough to prevent the shipwreck.
The overcrowded wooden vessel, which fell in the stormy seas just 3 metres from the beach, had left Turkey four days earlier and was believed to have carried as many as 200 people from countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq who were seeking refuge in Europe. Four alleged people-smugglers have been arrested.
Protesters sounded cuddly toys on the ground of a square close to where the cabinet meeting took place in a gesture highlighting the 18 children who died in the wreck. Some held a banner reading Not in our name Calabria has a big heart, you don't! Many of the dead travelled to Crotone, a city close to Cutro, to identify their loved ones, are reportedly planning a class action case against the Italian state in an attempt to seek justice.
Meanwhile, 40 civil and social associations, including Doctors Without Borders, presented a petition to the prosecutors in Crotone, urging them to shed light on the shipwreck. There can be no grey areas on possible liability in the rescue machine, as the associations said in a statement.
Eighty people survived the shipwreck, the remains of which are still strewn across the beach in Steccato di Cutro, along with personal belongings.
Meloni's government pledged to stop illegal immigration when he came to power. There are fines of up to €50,000 for charity rescue ships that flout rules limiting them from carrying out one sea rescue at a time.
In a letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week, Meloni wrote that the goal was not to stop the illegal trafficking of human beings, but rather that it was a moral duty to avoid a repeat of the shipwreck in Cutro.