A lightning visit and an “express” press conference at the same airport to spread a message of unity and announce an action plan to address the immigration emergency, which was already partially approved in June and is not working. This is the summary of the President of the European Commission’s mission, which lasted just three hours, Ursula von der Leyenand Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were this Sunday in Lampedusa, the epicenter of the migration drama on the Italian island, overwhelmed after the arrival of thousands of migrants this week.
“Illegal immigration is a European challenge and requires a European response,” defended Ursula von der Leyen. The President of the European Commission announced a joint plan to combat irregular immigration. The program consists of ten commitments These include defining legal and safe humanitarian corridors, updating European anti-trafficking legislation and activating a solidarity mechanism to speed up the distribution of migrants across the 27 Member States.
“We have to decide who enters the EU, not the human traffickers” said the President of the Commission.
This latest proposal is similar to the one adopted by the EU last June, but the results have been rather limited as it is a voluntary initiative and some countries have refused to apply it. One of the last to get off the European solidarity bandwagon was Germany, which this week suspended voluntary acceptance of asylum seekers from Italy due to the rejection Rome committed to respecting certain European agreements, although Berlin backtracked this Saturday and announced that it would continue to “fulfill its humanitarian responsibilities.”.
The Italian government called for greater EU involvement to address the migration emergency in Lampedusa after 10,000 people landed on the Italian island in just three days this week. They are almost twice the size of the inhabitants of this small island of just 20 square kilometers, which is geographically closer to North Africa than to the Italian peninsula. Only in the hours before the symbolic visit Around 1,000 people arrived at the port.
Most boats reaching the Italian coast depart from Tunisia, which has replaced Libya as the main departure port. This is despite the fact that the EU signed a controversial economic agreement with the Tunisian president in July Kais Saedsimilar to the one with the Libyan authorities to try to stop the departure of barges.
Von der Leyen’s visit promised to increase maritime and air surveillance of the Mediterranean through European agencies such as Frontex and the coordination of return protocols with the countries of origin of immigrants who do not meet the requirements to apply for asylum in Europe was considered a success by the Italian government, while the opposition considered it a success Crisis in Lampedusa as a result of the “failure” of the policies of the executive branch led by Meloni, condemned the leader of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein.
The head of the European Commission has postponed her trip to New York this Sunday to attend the next United Nations General Assembly On Friday, Meloni invited her to visit the island so she could “personally familiarize herself with the situation.”. However, in the offered joint press conference, Meloni pointed out that he did not see von der Leyen’s participation as an “act of solidarity” but as a “responsibility”. “Lampedusa is a border of Italy, but also of Europe“. The leader of Hermanos Italia insisted on her strategy of externalizing EU borders and stopping migration flows from ports of departure. “We will not solve the problem by talking about redistribution. The only way to seriously address this is to stop illegal departures,” he concluded.
Before appearing before the press, the European Commission president and the Italian prime minister visited the island’s refugee reception center, which housed up to 7,000 people in a single day this week, although they avoided contact with the inmates. In structure, with Despite the capacity for 400 migrants, 1,500 people remain They are waiting to be transferred to other centers in the country.
The visit of the two leaders was welcomed Islanders’ skepticismwho managed to block the procession of official cars and confronted the Prime Minister, demanding “actions and not words”.
“Thanks for the photo and the catwalk!” one of the neighbors shouted indignantly. while the car with Von der Leyen and Meloni left the port.
According to the latest data from the Transalpine Ministry of the Interior, they reached Italy via the Mediterranean in 2023 127,000 immigrants, almost twice as many as in the same period last year and in 2021 the number will triple. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 2,000 people died during the journey.