Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni started to fulfill his election promises she made last year on migration, the Migration Research Institute said in an analysis sent to Magyar Nemzet.
This is important because the central Mediterranean route has seen a wave of migration this year on a scale not seen for seven years. According to Frontex, Italy will suffer the most from the migratory pressure on Europe in 2023, as half of all illegal border crossings into Europe will be made in the country. Since the beginning of this year, more than 127,000 people have arrived on Italian shores. In the same period last year, the figure was just over 66,000.
What did Giorgia Meloni's party promise?
In its 2022 election manifesto, Giorgia Meloni's party Brothers of Italy (FdI), the main party in the ruling coalition, promised to work with North African authorities to stop people smuggling.
The party pledged to protect the country's borders and said it would fight NGOs that support illegal immigration.
The manifesto also included a chapter on illegal migration, calling for the creation of 'hotspots' outside Europe to process asylum applications and ensure their fair distribution. The Migration Research Institute recalled:
Meloni's government had just been formed when a civilian rescue ship put Italy back in the European headlines.
The Italian government refused to allow the Norwegian-registered NGO ship Ocean Viking, with 230 migrants on board, to dock in Italy, and the ship that had rescued people from the Mediterranean dropped off the survivors in France, causing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Regarding the point on NGO ships, Meloni's government began 2023 by amending the Lamorgese decree, the Migration Research Institute notes. The institute explains that
this law allowed the Minister of the Interior to restrict or prohibit the passage or stopping of ships in Italian waters in the interests of public order and safety.
The new legislation tightened up the old one, which had been passed three years earlier with the clear aim of reducing migratory pressure. Meloni's promise to crack down on NGOs has been fulfilled, the Migration Research Institute writes in its analysis, noting, however, that only about a tenth of irregular arrivals in Italy arrive by rescue ship. The analysis also refers to the Meloni government's measure of September 2023, stating that Italy will increase the number of detention centres for repatriation (CPR - Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatrio), where those who have not applied for asylum or have been legally ordered to leave are detained.
Driving force behind the agreement with the current main transit country
The Meloni government was "the driving force behind the agreement with Tunisia, currently the most important African transit country," the researchers explain. As we previously reported, Tunisian President Kais Saied and Ursula von der Leyen signed a strategic cooperation agreement in June in a bid to fight people smugglers.
In total, the European Union has pledged more than €1 billion to the North African country, with €105 million earmarked for the fight against illegal migration.
This aid will enable Tunisia to effectively protect the EU's external borders and set up the necessary asylum system and buffer zone.
The Italian Prime Minister wants to extend this memorandum of understanding with Tunisia to the whole Mediterranean region.
However, the arrival figures reported on 17 September show that the pact concluded in June has so far had no effect. According to the Migration Research Institute, a flood of people on the central Mediterranean route, that is on a scale not seen for seven years, will certainly require the Italian government to deploy even more resources. They believe that this could lead to conflict not only with the European great powers, but also between the coalition parties, as the issue of immigration is being used to win votes not only by the Brothers of Italy, but also by Matteo Salvini and his Lega party.
Cover image. Newly elected Italian Prime Minister and Italian Brothers (FdI) party leader Giorgia Meloni before a vote of confidence on her government in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament in Rome on 25 October 2022 (Photo: MTI/EPA-ANSA/Fabio Frustaci)
