2023-09-30 05:35:00
The leaders of nine southern European countries urged yesterday in Malta to multiply efforts to confront a new wave of migration and defended addressing the issue at its roots, both with the countries of origin and transit.
“We recall the need for a significant increase in the efforts of the European Union on the external front, with a renewed focus to effectively reduce initial movements and prevent departures,” said Italy, Malta, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Spain, Greece , Portugal and Slovenia in a joint statement after the Med9 summit.
The meeting, which took place on the Mediterranean island of Malta, came the day after European Union (EU) interior ministers promised to agree to reform their migration policy.
Fighting irregular immigration requires “a sustained and holistic European response,” defended the participants.
The arrival of thousands of migrants to the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent weeks has exacerbated tensions within the bloc. The island, just 20 square kilometers, is located off North Africa, closer to that continent than to Europe.
So far this year, the number of arrivals in Italy has exceeded 133,000, almost double that of the same period last year, according to Rome.
In addition, nearly 11,600 “unaccompanied minors” tried to reach that country between January and mid-September via that dangerous route, 60% more than in the same period in 2022, reported the UN children’s agency (Unicef). ).
The journey, organized by human traffickers in overloaded boats, is fraught with tragedies. Between June and August, at least 990 people died or disappeared while attempting it in the central Mediterranean, compared to 334 in the same months of 2022, according to Unicef.
The incessant influx strained relations between the countries that serve as a gateway to Europe and its partners. The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has clashed with France and Germany on this thorny issue and is putting pressure on other EU members to agree to receive more migrants.
Meloni met yesterday with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and assured after those meetings that there was a “will, at least on paper”, to act jointly. It is “something that has to be done at the European level to be really effective,” she insisted.
“Shared vision”. Von der Leyen presented a ten-point plan to confront the record arrival of migrants to Italy in mid-September, during a visit to Lampedusa. The plan includes a possible expansion of naval missions in the Mediterranean which, according to Meloni, should be carried out “in agreement with the North African authorities.”
Macron and Meloni managed to reduce tensions in recent days and now have a “shared vision to manage the immigration issue,” said a French presidential source.
Italy also criticizes Germany for financing NGO rescue ships that operate in the central Mediterranean and disembark migrants in Italian ports. Meloni urged the EU to include regulations to force humanitarian ships sailing under foreign flags to disembark migrants in their own countries, Meloni said on Friday.
But according to Italian media, the amendment was rejected on Thursday by the interior ministers of the 27-nation bloc.
Both Meloni and Macron also want to stop the departure of boats through closer collaboration with Tunisia, despite doubts about respect for human rights and the treatment that country reserves for migrants.
The French president insisted that it is essential to establish stronger alliances with the countries of origin and transit, especially Tunisia and Libya, providing financial means and technical cooperation to fight “against human trafficking.”
The European Commission (EU Executive) announced last week that it will deliver the first funds to Tunisia as part of the agreement signed to stop irregular migration from the Maghreb country, one of the main departure points to Europe.
The agreement is already producing “very important signs of collaboration” and is “a model” that can be used with other North African countries, Meloni said.
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