2023-09-15 13:05:34
The images of the arrival of thousands of migrants in Lampedusa caused shock waves in Europe, and therefore in France. Gérald Darmanin has therefore decided to convene a meeting, which is to be held on Friday afternoon, on the “migratory situation” on this small Italian island which has been facing record arrivals of migrants via the Mediterranean in recent days.
The meeting organized by the Minister of the Interior must be held in the afternoon with the “relevant services” of the police, the gendarmerie and immigration, as well as the prefects of Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-Maritimes, the latter two departments bordering Italy, it was specified.
More than 7,000 people from North Africa landed on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lampedusa, one of the main gateways to Europe, the equivalent of the local population on this island, which declared itself in state emergency.
Exchanges with Berlin and Rome
During a trip to Menton (Alpes-Maritimes) on Tuesday, Gérald Darmanin announced reinforcements in the fight against irregular immigration at the Italian border, where France is seeing “a 100% increase in flows”, he said. said.
The Ministry of the Interior has not indicated, at this stage, whether France could align itself with the decision of Germany, which announced on Wednesday to suspend the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from Italy . The Minister of the Interior will also discuss with his German and Italian counterparts
In Lampedusa, the reception center intended to house fewer than 400 people is overwhelmed, with men, women and children forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic beds, many wrapped in survival blankets. Of the approximately 7,000 arrivals, more than 5,000 people landed on Italian shores on Tuesday, almost exclusively in Lampedusa and nearly 3,000 on Wednesday, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. An “absolute record”, according to Matteo Villa, from the ISPI think tank.
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