Shaken by criticism for immigration management – ??even from members of her own coalition – in the face of the serious situation that has been experienced on the island of Lampedusa this week, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, wanted to send a message of firmness to say that, after having come to power promising a tough line, regarding immigration “he has not changed his mind.”
The Italian president has announced that on Monday she will hold a council of ministers in which new measures will be adopted and has once again raised her voice to demand help from Europe, even asking for a “naval mission”, if necessary, “in accordance with the North African authorities” to contain the arrivals.
The far-right leader has invited the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to visit the island of Lampedusa together and see first-hand the dramatic conditions on these days after 10,000 people had disembarked in just three days, saturating the island reception system. The community leader’s spokesperson, Eric Mamer, confirmed yesterday that Von der Leyen will go this morning. There, Meloni will also ask him to accelerate the implementation of the controversial agreement reached with Tunisia in July, by which the EU agreed to send funds to the country – criticized by the European Ombudsman due to the authoritarian drift of President Kais Saied – in exchange for collaboration to stop the games, which has not yet shown any results. For now, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has responded to the Italian call, who, on a visit to Burgundy, promised decisions of “European solidarity.”
The chaos in Lampedusa revived yesterday with protests by the island’s inhabitants. Some of them spoke out against the idea of ??building a migrant camp on Lampedusa, with only 6,000 residents, outnumbered by the people who have landed. The image of solidarity that its inhabitants had shown by inviting the migrants to eat contrasted with three women who yesterday tried to stop a Red Cross vehicle that was carrying meals.
So far this year, more than 127,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores, almost double the number during the same period last year. The reason is that now the vast majority of barges leave from Tunisia, mired in a serious financial crisis, which is located just 150 kilometers from Lampedusa. “The migratory pressure that Italy has been suffering since the beginning of this year is unsustainable. Tens of thousands of people could arrive from Africa and the Government intends to adopt extraordinary measures to deal with the number of landings that we have experienced on our coasts,” said the prime minister.
Among the measures they will take to discourage departures will be an extension of the time limit to retain migrants in an irregular situation and the creation of identification and expulsion centers, the so-called cíes. “It is not advisable for you to entrust yourself to human traffickers, who ask you for a lot of money and place you on precarious boats, because, if you enter Italy illegally, you will be detained and repatriated,” Meloni warned them, who once again showed his harshest face. after having received criticism from all sides.
The issue has even generated new tensions between the Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League, a minority partner in the coalition. Andrea Crippa, one of the league member’s closest collaborators, has even denounced that the government’s diplomatic strategy with immigration is not working and has said that we should “go back to what Salvini did when he was Minister of the Interior.” “He showed that problems can only be solved with more rigid attitudes,” he said. Salvini, who has already started his electoral campaign ahead of the European elections, invited his ally Marine Le Pen on Sunday to the annual meeting of the League in Pontida, in the north of the country, while Meloni will be in Lampedusa with Von der They read.
Yesterday, the island woke up to the tragic news of the death of a newborn in a boat trying to reach Lampedusa. An Italian coast guard boat came to the aid of the barge on which migrants were traveling and found the mother, who had given birth during the journey, next to her dead son, who was taken in a white coffin to the cemetery, while that she received medical help in the outpatient clinic. Another five-month-old baby drowned this week during a rescue operation near the island.
Italy was still working to transfer migrants to other parts of Italy and decongest the small reception center in Lampedusa. These trips, which usually take place at night and mostly towards the island of Sicily, have caused new episodes of tension these days due to the long hours of waiting under the sun that they had to spend before boarding the boats. Added to all this was the fatigue of the law enforcement forces and the 130 workers and volunteers members of the Red Cross, who on Thursday alone distributed 5,000 lunches and 5,000 dinners. “We are exhausted, but operational,” said the president of the organization in Italy, Rosario Valastro.
