LSE Students Catch Ex-Italian Foreign Minister ‘Red-Handed’

Marco Minniti, former Italian Minister of the Interior, was invited by the LSESU Italian Society to speak at LSE. The event, co-hosted by the LSE Institute of Global Affairs, discussed issues of migration and security.

Students from LSE, SOAS, King’s College and Goldsmiths attended the event to protest Minniti’s controversial policies towards refugees. They booked tickets to the event and painted their hands red, accusing Minniti of causing the deaths of refugees in the Mediterranean.

After the event, Minniti was blocked from leaving by the protest. When he emerged from the front of the New Academic Building, almost 100 students from across the University of London held up red hands and placards, shouting phrases such as “murderer”.

As Minniti got into a taxi, red paint was thrown on him and the car. Students were heard calling out: “Stop deportations, no borders, no nations”.

The student group say that they wanted to “draw attention to how Minniti has directly led to the consolidation of the current deadly state of affairs for people on the move across the Mediterranean and in Libya”. They stressed his sealing of the Mediterranean route, criminalising rescue and solidarity work, and restricting the process for refugees to seek asylum.