Migrant situation out of control, Italian minister asks for EU help

With thousands of migrants arriving on Italy’s coasts daily, ministers have joined mayors and governors in asking the European Union for help managing migration flows.

On Sunday, Enterprise and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR) visited a hot-spot reception centre in Lampedusa, the Italian island closest to the coast of North Africa and a destination for thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

The minister also inspected the Favarolo pier, where most of the migrants rescued by the Coast Guard and Guardia di Finanza are disembarked. The dock is full of fuel canisters, clothes, shoes and thermal blankets, as well as boats and barges waiting to depart.

“The situation in Lampedusa is there for all to see, but it has to be Europe to lend a hand to us Italians to better manage this phenomenon”, Urso said.

“The situation here is unsustainable, and solutions must be found so that it can be, on the one hand, scaled down and, on the other hand, continue to strengthen the device that has been in place up to this point”, the minister added.

There are almost 5,000 migrants in Lampedusa, and authorities have said the island cannot receive any more. Between 1 January and 25 August, an estimated 107,530 migrants, mainly Tunisians but also Indians, Malaysians and Sudanese, arrived in Italy. The boats come mainly from Sfax in Tunisia and Libya.

Several movements of migrants are planned, first by boat and then by bus, to other reception centres in northern regions of Italy, which are also on the verge of collapse, with regional governors complaining of a lack of resources and facilities to accommodate arrivals.

The government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is struggling with the sensitive issue of irregular immigration, a workhorse of the right composed of Matteo Salvini’s Lega (ID) and Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia (EPP). The Prime Minister has returned to Palazzo Chigi after weeks of vacation in Puglia, and the first Council of Ministers after the summer break will be held on Monday while a majority summit is scheduled for 4 September.

Ministers are set to discuss a decree on migratory flows that will allow the arrival of 450,000 legal foreigners to join the thousands of irregular ones already in the country. They will also look into a new security decree that will allow the expulsion of irregular foreigners and introduce stricter controls to verify the age of migrants presumed to be minors.

“I believe that a new security decree is needed as early as September because Italy cannot be an arrival point for migrants from halfway around the world”, said Transport Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini.

“Since Italy sends billions of euros to Brussels every year, defending Italy’s borders must be a European priority. And to date, unfortunately, it has not been, we have always been alone”, Salvini added.

(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)