2023-09-17 17:25:21
Italy will not be alone in the face of the arrival of migrants on its shores. On the island of Lampedusa, which has seen several thousand migrants disembark in recent days, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a ten-point plan to help Rome, in the presence of the far-right Prime Minister Italian Giorgia Meloni. This plan is supposed to combine firmness against smugglers and facilitation of legal channels of entry into the European area for candidates eligible for asylum.
In the short and medium term, the European partners of Italy, the first country of entry into the EU on this migratory route, must take their part, said the President of the European Commission. “Irregular immigration is a European challenge that needs a European response,” she insisted during a press briefing. “We urge other member states to use the voluntary solidarity mechanism,” she said, without mentioning Germany which recently decided to no longer receive migrants arriving in Italy.
“Increase returns” and “discourage crossings”
The European plan thus provides for “strengthening the support provided to Italy by the European Union Agency for Asylum (AUEA) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex)”, but also to emphasize “the prevention of departures” by opening “the possibility of a work agreement between Tunisia and Frontex”. “Awareness and communication campaigns to discourage crossings” and “cooperation with the UNHCR and the IOM” are also highlighted in this document, in a desire to reduce the number of migrants trying their luck rather than having to manage them once they arrive.
European solidarity section, the plan includes in its second point “the transfer of people outside Lampedusa, including to other Member States”, but without a binding system for the latter. Finally, Europe plans to “increase the number of returns”, in particular to “Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso”, and to “ensure the decommissioning of boats and canoes recovered tires” to act against smuggling networks.
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