Italy to toughen jail terms for migrant smugglers after shipwreck - draft decree

FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivers statements with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government was set to approve tougher jail terms for human smugglers, a draft decree seen by Reuters showed on Thursday, hours before a cabinet meeting near the town where a recent shipwreck killed at least 72 migrants.

Four suspected traffickers have been detained in the wake of the Feb. 26 incident in the seaside resort of Steccato di Cutro, where a wooden boat crammed with an estimated 180 migrants crashed and sank near the shoreline.