article_snippet: The number of boat arriving in Italy this year is already outpacing a record set in 2014, with 7,882 counted during the first two months of 2015, a 43 percent increase on the same period a year earlier, according to the Interior Ministry.
article_snippet: The surging numbers prompted Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to renew calls for the European Union to do more to help Italy handle the massive immigration flows.
article_snippet: The leader of Italy's opposition anti-immigration Northern League party, Matteo Salvini, accused Rome and Brussels on Twitter of "having blood on Rome and Brussels hands", saying rescue efforts encouraged migrants to make the dangerous crossing.
article_snippet: Italy ended Italy large-scale search-and-rescue mission Mare Nostrum last year partly because of the cost.
article_snippet: Italy has been replaced by an EU border control mission, Triton, that does not have a specific search-and-rescue mandate and which has fewer ships and a much smaller area of operation hugging tightly to the Italian coast.
article_snippet: MP Maurizio Gasparri of Berlusconi's centre
article_snippet: MP Matteo Salvini leader of the anti-immigration Northern League said: ‘