Italy faces ‘an invasion’ of migrants, says Meloni
Prime minister warns of summer influx after three times as many arrivals on its shores so far this year
ITALY’S prime minister has warned that the country faces “an invasion” of migrants and refugees this summer after the number of arrivals so far this year tripled compared with last year.
It comes ahead of a summit in Brussels next week at which European leaders will be told to find ways to deport more failed asylum seekers from the bloc, with just one-fifth currently returned to their home country.
The Italian government is hoping the meeting will yield concrete assistance from other EU countries in dealing with the influx of people fleeing across the Mediterranean.
So far this year, more than 20,000 migrants and refugees have reached Italian shores – three times the number in the corresponding period last year.
Giorgia Meloni said this week: “If Europe doesn’t get moving and continues to leave us on our own, this summer there will be an invasion. The numbers are striking and with fine weather, the problem can only get worse.”
An MP from Ms Meloni’s hard-Right Brothers of Italy party warned there are nearly
700,000 migrants in Libya waiting to cross the Mediterranean. The claim was dismissed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which said that was a total figure for migrants working and living in Libya. “That is not the same as the number of people who are ready to leave,” IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Every couple of years there are headlines saying there are 500,000 or a million people ready to leave Libya. These are not credible figures.”
The Italian government alleged this week that Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Libya are using migration as a form of “hybrid warfare”, encouraging people to cross the Mediterranean to punish Italy for its support for Ukraine.
In fact the biggest wave of migrants arriving in Italy is coming from Tunisia – 60 per cent of those who successfully made the journey this year. In terms of nationality, the largest group is from Ivory Coast, followed by Guinea. Possible factors behind the surge include unusually mild winter weather and a deteriorating situation in Tunisia, where President Kais Saied is overseeing a clampdown on any opposition. Last month, he also launched a racist attack on the country’s small population of about 20,000 sub-Saharan migrants, accusing them of being part of a conspiracy to change the demographic make-up of the country.
“If Tunisia explodes, a thousand people a day will start arriving,” Antonio Tajani, the Italian foreign minister, was quoted as saying this week.
But Italy is not alone in raising the alarm about the EU’s unsustainable approach to migration, after the bloc’s border agency, Frontex, reported 330,000 irregular crossings last year, the highest since 2016.
In a joint letter last month, the
‘Last year we had a return rate of only 21pc. When we fail to return people, this hampers our system and erodes trust’
leaders of Malta, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Austria and Slovakia said the EU’s “current asylum system is broken”.
“Irregular migration has once again become one of the most pressing issues in the EU,” they said. “Without renewed and successful efforts … irregular migration to Europe can only be expected to continue and increase in the coming years.”
At their previous summit in Brussels last month, EU leaders talked a tough game but were unable to reach any significant agreements to tackle the issue.
Migration hardliners wanted the bloc to start funding border fences, akin to former US president Donald Trump’s wall, but all they could agree on was new cash to pay for infrastructure such as cameras, watch towers and vehicles for Frontex.
Since those talks, almost 100 people, including at least 34 children, have drowned after their Italy-bound boats sank in the Mediterranean.
When the EU’s leaders reconvene for fresh talks next week, they will shift focus to the low numbers of illegal migrants being deported.
Frontex has been given at least €100million (£88.5million) this year to operate return flights, part of a wider push to use the agency to deport rejected asylum seekers. Ylva Johansson, the EU’s home affairs commissioner, said: “Last year we had a return rate of only 21 per cent of those not eligible to stay. When we fail to return people, this hampers our system and erodes trust.”
Many of those allowed to stay in the EU illegally have headed for Britain. Those onward movements have left the Dutch and Belgian asylum systems at breaking point.
The Belgian crisis means as many as 2,000 illegal migrants have been left without shelter and are sleeping rough, according to their asylum agency.
Dutch ministers have spent months frantically trying to fix chronic overcrowding at their national refugee reception centre in Ter Apel.