Italy rejects remarks by U.N. rights chief on migrants

ROME: Italy on Tuesday rejected remarks by U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on its treatment of migrants as "inappropriate, unfounded, unjust".

The foreign ministry, in a long and sharply worded statement, was responding to a speech in which Bachelet criticised Italy for denying entry to NGO rescue ships and announced the dispatching of a U.N. team to investigate a "sharp increase in acts of violence and racism against migrants."