Shaken by criticism for migration management - even from members of her own coalition - due to the serious situation that has been experienced on the island of Lampedusa this week, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has wanted to send a message of firmness to say that, after having come to power promising a tough hand on immigration, "he has not changed his mind".
The Italian leader has announced that on Monday she will hold a council of ministers in which new measures will be adopted and has again raised her voice to demand help from Europe, and has even asked for a "naval mission", if necessary, "of agreement with the North African authorities" to contain the arrivals.
The far-right leader has invited the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to visit the island of Lampedusa together and check first-hand the dramatic conditions during these days after 10,000 people had disembarked in just three days and had saturated the island's reception system. The spokesperson for the Community leader, Eric Mamer, confirmed yesterday that Von der Leyen will be there this morning. There, Meloni will also ask him to accelerate the implementation of the controversial agreement agreed with Tunisia in July, by which the EU agreed to send funds to the country - criticized by the European Ombudsman due to the authoritarian drift of President Kais Saied - to change of collaboration to slow down the exits, which has not yet shown any results. For now, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has responded to the Italian call, who, during a visit to Burgundy, promised decisions of "European solidarity".
The chaos in Lampedusa revived yesterday with the protests of the island's inhabitants. Some of them spoke out against the idea of building a migrant camp in Lampedusa, with only 6,000 residents, outnumbered by the people who have disembarked. The image of solidarity shown by its inhabitants by inviting the migrants to eat contrasted with three women who yesterday tried to stop a Red Cross vehicle carrying food.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 127,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores, almost twice as many as during the same period last year. The reason is that the vast majority of boats now leave from Tunisia, mired in a serious financial crisis, and which is just 150 kilometers from Lampedusa. "The migratory pressure that Italy has been suffering since the beginning of the year is unsustainable. Tens of thousands of people could arrive from Africa and the Government intends to adopt extraordinary measures to deal with the number of landings we have experienced on our coasts", indicated the Prime Minister.
Among the measures they will take to discourage departures will be an extension of the time limit for detaining migrants in an irregular situation and the creation of identification and expulsion centers, the so-called. "It is not appropriate for you to put yourself in the hands of people traffickers, who ask you for a lot of money and place you in precarious boats, because if you enter Italy illegally, you will be detained and repatriated", warned Meloni, who returned to show his tougher side after receiving criticism from all sides.
The issue has even generated more tension between the Brothers of Italy and the League of Matteo Salvini, a minority partner in the coalition. Andrea Crippa, one of the closest collaborators of the striker, has even denounced that the government's diplomatic strategy with immigration is not working and has said that he "must go back to what Salvini did when he was Minister of the Interior" . "He showed that problems can only be solved with more rigid attitudes", he assured. Salvini, who has already started his campaign for the European elections, has invited his ally Marine Le Pen to the League's annual meeting in Pontida, in the north of the country, on Sunday, while Meloni will be in Lampedusa with Von der Leyen .
Yesterday the island woke up to the tragic news of the death of a creature in a pasture trying to reach Lampedusa. An Italian coastguard vessel went to the aid of the migrant boat and found the mother, who had given birth during the journey, next to her dead son, who was taken in a white coffin to the cemetery while that she received medical help at the outpatient clinic. Another five-month-old baby drowned this week during a rescue operation around the island.
Italy continued to work to move migrants to other parts of Italy and decongest the small reception center in Lampedusa. These journeys, which are usually carried out at night and mostly towards the island of Sicily, have caused more episodes of tension these days due to the long hours of waiting in the sun that they had to spend before getting on the boats. Added to all this was the fatigue of the police and the 130 workers and volunteers who were members of the Red Cross, who distributed 5,000 lunches and 5,000 dinners on Thursday alone. "We are exhausted but operational", assured the president of the organization in Italy, Rosario.
