Italy needs migration, admits Giorgia Meloni as she softens her stance

Our Foreign Staff
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Giorgia Meloni was accused by some on the Right for abandoning her principles after taking power - AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

Italy needs migration, Giorgia Meloni said as she sought to win support from African nations on a plan to curb human trafficking into Europe.

The hard-Right prime minister, who came to power on a pledge to block migrant boats in the Mediterranean, softened her rhetoric in an attempt to build alliances with the nations migrants leave or pass through.

Ms Meloni convened a summit, of more than 20 nations and top EU officials, in Rome after largely failing to control migrant flows in the first months of her term.

Addressing an audience that included Tunisia’s president as well as representatives from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, she said that everyone was harmed by illegal migration.

“No one benefits from this,” she said, “except criminal groups who get rich at the expenses of the most fragile and use their strength even against the governments.”

Ms Meloni proposed working more closely with countries of origin to manage migrant flows and fight criminal traffickers.

However, she said that she was open to creating more legal routes into her country as “Europe and Italy need immigration”.

Earlier this month, Italy pledged to issue 425,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2023 to 2025, increasing the number of permits available each year to a high of 165,000 in 2025. In 2019, before Covid struck, Italy issued just 30,850 visas.

Critics on the Right have accused Ms Meloni, the leader of the ruling Brothers of Italy party, of abandoning her principles after taking power.

The Italian prime minister told the conference that Western arrogance had hampered finding a solution to migrant flows, which have surged this year.

More than 83,000 migrants have landed in Italy this year, compared with about 34,000 in the same period in 2022.

She said: “The West too often has given the impression of being more interested in giving lessons rather than lending a hand. It is probably this diffidence that has made it difficult to make progress on solutions.”

The Rome summit came a week after one of the key participants – Kais Saied, the Tunisian president – signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Ms Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

Giorgia Meloni with Kais Saied, the Tunisian president, at the Rome summit 

- Tunisian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Financial details were not released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly €1 billion (£865.5 million) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and €100 million (£86,550,000) for border control, as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

“We want our agreement with Tunisia to be a template. A blueprint for the future. For partnerships with other countries in the region,” Ms von der Leyen told the conference.

The EU could work with countries such as Tunisia in expanding their production of renewable energy to the benefit of all, she added.

Mohamed al-Menfi, head of Libya’s Presidential Council, called for help from richer nations.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Pope Francis called on European and African governments to help migrants trapped in desert areas in north Africa, and to ensure that the Mediterranean was never again “a theatre of death” for those attempting to cross.