Partido Popular leader Alberto Nùnez Feijòo met the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome and praised her migration policy, which focuses on stopping boats leaving Tunisia and Libya and setting up asylum application processing centres in Albania.
Feijòo met with Meloni and spoke at a press conference at the Foreign Press Association alongside Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a fellow member of the European People’s Party (EPP), on Thursday.
“Italy’s approach to fighting illegal immigration is effective; Spain’s is not,” said the Spanish opposition leader, who praised Italy’s strategy as a model to follow.
“We must stop the human trafficking networks and promote legal immigration,” said Feijóo. He also noted that the number of irregular migrant arrivals in Italy has fallen by 60% in the past year, while Spain has seen a 60% increase.
Feijóo’s visit to Italy is part of a wider effort to build European support for his recent proposal for a “European Alliance” against irregular migration. His aim is to encourage greater EU involvement in tackling the migration challenge as Germany closes its borders.
One of the key components of Italy’s policy, recently praised by UK Labour leader Keir Starmer, is outsourcing asylum processing to third countries, in Italy’s case Albania.
Under the agreement, migrants rescued in the Mediterranean will be sent to Albania where their asylum applications are processed. Two identification and reception centres are due to open in the coming weeks, with a capacity of up to 3,000 people a month, or 36,000 a year. Once a decision is made, they will either be sent to Italy or another country.
However, human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have criticised the plan, calling it a system of “illegal detention”. The European Union, on the other hand, has said the deal appears to be legally sound.
Meloni’s migration policy has received unexpected bipartisan support from leaders such as Starmer and Feijóo, who point to the significant reduction in migrant arrivals in Italy.
According to provisional data from Frontex, irregular crossings on the central Mediterranean route to Italy fell by 64% in the first eight months of this year compared to 2023 – a record year for the route.
The trend contrasts sharply with the situation in Spain’s Canary Islands, where migrant arrivals have risen by 123%, and Greece, where arrivals have increased by 39%.
(Alessia Peretti | Euractiv.it)
Source: euractiv.com
