The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced today from the Italian island of Lampedusa (south), epicenter of the Mediterranean migration crisis, a European action plan to contain irregular immigration and share the management of transfers of migrants arriving on the Italian coast.
"I have come to Lampedusa to say that illegal immigration is a European challenge and requires a European response," said Von der Leyen accompanied by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who requested the assistance of the European leader after the arrival of more than 10,000 migrants to the island in just three days.
The announced program consists of ten commitments, including a solidarity mechanism for other European countries to transfer migrants arriving in Lampedusa out of Italy, updating European legislation against human trafficking and defining new legal and safe humanitarian corridors.
Von der Leyen has also promised to increase aerial surveillance of the Mediterranean, through European agencies such as Frontex, and coordinate with countries of origin protocols to safely repatriate migrants who do not meet European asylum conditions.
"We must decide who enters the European Union, not the traffickers," he said in his speech after visiting the reception center where dozens of barges from Africa arrive daily.
The visit of the European leader has coincided with the arrival of more than 1,000 migrants to the island in the last few hours, a considerable number but far from the more than 10,000 who arrived in three days in the middle of this week.
This situation completely overwhelmed the reception capacity of the island, whose area is 20 square kilometers, and led the leader of the Italian Executive to demand help from the European Union.
For this reason, Meloni stated that he did not consider Von der Leyen's attendance at Lampedusa an "act of solidarity", but rather one of "responsibility".
"It is a border of Italy but also of Europe. If anyone in Europe thinks that the global crisis can be resolved only by leaving it to us Italians, they are wrong," said the far-right leader flanked by the European representative.
The European program represents a boost to the strategy defended by Meloni since he took office almost a year ago: abandon disputes over the distribution of migrants between European countries and focus efforts on stopping the departures through agreements with African states.
For this reason, one of the most anticipated commitments by the Italian Government was the last of those pronounced by Von der Leyen, who urged to accelerate the application of the migration agreement that Brussels signed with Tunisia last July and that included macro-financial aid of more than 1,000 million euros in exchange for immigration containment measures.
Minutes before, the two leaders toured the hot spots of the Lampedusa migration drama during a walk of just two hours, such as the dock where thousands of migrants were stranded a few days ago and the reception center in its port, managed by the Cross. Red with little capacity for 400 people.
"Traffickers are unscrupulous people, they deceive people and put them at risk just to make money," denounced Von der Leyen, also accompanied by the European commissioner for internal affairs, Ylva Johansson.
During its journey, a citizen protest interrupted its passage to express its feeling of abandonment by Europe and demand more resources.
So far this year alone, 127,207 immigrants have landed in Italy, almost double that of the 66,237 of the same period in 2022 and triple that of 2021 (42,750), according to the latest data updated by the Ministry of the Interior.
"The future of Europe is at stake here, and it depends on Europe's ability to face great challenges. Illegal immigration is one of these transcendental challenges. I have found a collaborative disposition in Von der Leyen," said Meloni.
