Friday, September 15, 2023
16:39
LAMPEDUSA, “THE FUTURE OF FRANCE”, AFTER JORDAN BARDELLA
“The European Union has become a host for migrants,” denounces LCI Jordan Bardella, head of the RN list for the European elections. “What is happening in Lampedusa is the future of France if we do not regain control of our destiny. I call on the President of the Republic not to welcome migrants into French territory.”
Crisis in Lampedusa: RN President Jordan Bardella reacts to LCISource: TF1 Info
16:32
THE RIGHT EXTREME LAUNCHES ITS CAMPAIGN
The migration crisis in Lampedusa gave the far right the opportunity to launch its European election campaign on immigration. Reconquest and RN criticize European migration policy, French aid policy and demand more sovereignty in border management.
politics
Published today at 4:15 p.m.
3:31 p.m
REFUSAL TO MIGRANT TRANSLATIONS: GERMANY DECLARES ITSELF
Germany wants to “send a signal to Rome” by suspending the voluntary admission of asylum seekers provided for in European agreements because Italy refuses to apply its part of the agreement, a government spokesman said on Friday.
The resettlements provided for in the “voluntary European solidarity mechanism” could be resumed “at any time if Italy fulfills its obligation to take back refugees in accordance with the Dublin rules,” this spokesman assured, rejecting criticism of a lack of “solidarity” on the part of Germany.
15:29
CATHERINE COLONNA ON LCI
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna reiterates that “France is doing its part” in the migration crisis. “We must continue the work initiated by the interior ministers on a mechanism that allows us to strengthen our protection at our external borders, preventing the arrival of irregular migrants but welcoming those who need to go there,” she urges on LCI.
Find the entire interview this Friday at 8 p.m. on LCI (Channel 26).
Crisis in Lampedusa: “France is participating,” says Catherine Colonna on LCISource: TF1 Info
3:09 p.m
“Don’t leave Italy alone”
The Italian island of Lampedusa has been surprised by a massive influx of migrants in recent days and has declared a state of emergency. In response, Emmanuel Macron estimated that the European Union must intervene so as not to “leave Italy alone”. “Work is underway” between Paris and Rome and “decisions will be made on this basis,” he announced.
International
Published today at 2:40 p.m.
2:45 p.m
“POINT OF NO RETURN”
“We have reached a point where there is no turning back,” complained the mayor of Lampedusa, Fillipo Manino, on the Italian broadcaster Sky TG24. Given the unprecedented influx of migrants in recent days, “we need Europe to put itself at the forefront of a relief operation across the Mediterranean,” he pleaded, explaining that he “cannot do more than what we are already doing.”
“I remember that situations like this did not occur during Operation Mare Nostrum, so perhaps we need to rethink the emergency operations,” he continued, referring to a European rescue operation that between 2013 and 2014 saved more than 100,000 people in the Mediterranean. “I am also sincerely outraged by what I see in these hours, when everyone is barricading themselves and closing their borders,” the elected official said, castigating “a Europe that has been silent for all these months, all these years, a Europe , that …”has no migration policy”.
“Enormous solidarity has developed on the island,” welcomed the city council. “Since yesterday, all residents have been helping as best they can by bringing food, toys and cuddly toys for the children. A parish structure was established to accommodate children, women and more vulnerable people. The law enforcement officers and the clubs got involved.” “The staff at the reception are doing their best to get this phenomenon under control, even if the large number of people to help makes the task more difficult,” he explained. The city declared a “national mourning” on Wednesday and today we will have a moment of reflection in front of the parish church.
14:29
REPORTING
The island of Lampedusa (Italy) is facing a massive influx of migrants. More than 7,000 in 48 hours, which is more than the local population. What will become of them and where will they go? Answers in the report below.
International
Published today at 2:16 p.m.
2:16 p.m
E. CIOTTI CALLS FOR A REFERENDUM “BY THE END OF THE YEAR”.
Republican leader Éric Ciotti called on Emmanuel Macron in a statement to AFP on Friday to organize a referendum on immigration “by the end of the year” following the arrival of more than 7,000 people from North Africa on the Italian island of Lampedusa. “The situation in Lampedusa is dramatic on a human and migratory level,” explained the Alpes-Maritimes deputy, convinced that “these populations, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, will be at our borders in just a few days.”
“Given the emergency, we ask the President of the Republic to call a referendum on immigration by the end of the year, in accordance with Article 89 of the Constitution,” he said. The Republicans have presented a draft constitution on immigration that provides for popular consultation on the issue, an idea that Eric Ciotti reiterated during the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and political party leaders on August 30 in Saint-Denis.
13:22
“We have a duty of European solidarity,” estimates E. Macron
The head of state responded to the crisis in Lampedusa with a trip to the Château de Bussy-Rabutin (Côte d’Or). “This situation shows that immigration is a phenomenon that affects all Europeans,” said Emmanuel Macron. “We must first take a humanitarian approach, our responsibility is to take care of the people who have arrived. Then we have a duty to be European.” Solidarity. Gérald Darmanin is currently working with the Italian government and decisions will be made on this basis.
“Europe must better protect its borders,” the head of state continued. “We must do a better job of preventing these migrations from the African continent and the Middle East. France carried out this action. Once people are in the territory, we have to see whether they are eligible for asylum or if they should be sent back to their homeland. We must be able to do this very effectively with common rules. We will act with consistency, but with humanity.”
12:53
THE AUDITORS
Numerous videos are circulating on the Internet about the arrival of several thousand migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa. These images, used politically by the extreme right, come from journalists or locals.
12:52
3000 PEOPLE STILL ON THE ISLAND
According to information provided by the Italian Red Cross (CRI) to TF1info, there are still 3,000 migrants on the island of Lampedusa. The Italian government has started evacuating people to Sicily, where 4,000 of them have already arrived. Now it is time to return to apparent calm, as only one refugee boat has docked on the island in the last 24 hours. Nevertheless, people could be rescued at sea by NGO boats. The club told AFP on Friday morning that 700 transfers had already taken place and that 2,500 more people were expected to leave the island during the day.
The press agency confirms that the influx of migrants in Lampedusa is decreasing on Friday and that Italian authorities are transferring thousands of people who arrived by sea this week to Sicily and the continent. They have mobilized significant resources to transport these people to Sicily or mainland ports, including a naval patrol boat and ferries. According to the Euronews website, 2,000 of the migrants who arrived in Lampedusa in recent days were transferred to the Sicilian cities of Augusta, Catana and Trapani. However, according to the website, most migrants departed from Sfax, Tunisia and come from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Chad, Tunisia, Cameroon and Guinea.
At the same time, migrants continued to arrive on the island, either alone or rescued by the coast guard, an AFP photographer noted. “Migrants continue to arrive, but we are taking care of them,” assured Francesca Basile, head of the migration department of the CRI, near the center on Friday morning.
According to the Red Cross, which is involved in the care of the migrants disembarked locally, the exact reasons for this massive arrival are difficult to determine, since the return of good weather has favored the departures, but cannot explain everything. This year, one or two refugee boats have docked on the island per day, but in the last three days around a hundred boats have arrived, which the NGO says is a “completely unusual” situation.
12:45
EUROPEAN MIGRATION POLICY: “IT’S NOT WORKING”
“The European strategy of closing the borders in the Mediterranean and externalizing a problem that it refused to solve through negotiations with Libya and Tunisia, we can clearly see that it is not working,” explained François Gemenne, specialist in migration issues Researcher, at LCI and member of the IPCC. “These countries are unreliable and pose serious problems in terms of respect for human rights, as Tunisia uses its police to hunt down migrants and release them in the Sahara along with Libya,” he stressed.
This bankrupt management “endangers Europe itself,” the expert recalled, as one of the central arguments for the British desire to leave the EU as part of Brexit. “If Europe fails to resolve this asylum and immigration issue, there will likely be more Brexits tomorrow as the desperation of populations will increase populism, nationalism and extremism,” he said.
12:38
LCI ON SITE
The reception center on the island was surprised by the massive arrival of 7,000 migrants in just a few days. Dozens of people sit in the sun, supported by the Red Cross, which is trying at all costs to help them. They tell of a hellish journey that sometimes lasted several months. There were also scuffles over food distributions. As migrants wait to continue their journey, fatigue is evident. Explanations from the LCI special correspondent on site in this video.
Influx of migrants to Lampedusa: reception center overloaded, LCI on site Source: TF1 Info
12:23
PARIS BUILD “A CALL OF THE AIR” FOR MIGRANTS, ACCORDING TO M. MARÉCHAL
The leader of the Reconquest list in the European elections, Marion Maréchal, spoke about LCI since then in Lampedusa, where she traveled. “I came because it is an important and historic issue for our continent, because this drama is just beginning,” she thundered, demanding “a political response” and assuring that there was “nothing indecent about coming there.” She also accused the French government of being “hypocritical” by “passing the buck to the Italian government” while at the same time “bringing a breath of fresh air” through measures on French soil that she said “encourage people to do this “to cross the Mediterranean”. “.
She called for “national responses that no longer encourage people to come to our countries” and criticized a “far too lax asylum system at European level” that would leave rejected people behind on European soil. “Most of the people who arrive here will not stay in Italy but will also go to France,” she defended, calling for “coherent action at European level” and a global “political response.” “It can only be a collective challenge,” assured Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “it cannot be an answer alone,” assured the head of the right-wing extremist party list. She also accused the NGOs of “collusion” with “smugglers,” “the human traffickers behind this spectacular landing of 7,000 migrants.”
11:55
What is funded at European level?
“The Italian government is in trouble compared to other issues, the only issues that remain on the table are immigration and Brussels,” in his opinion, “responsible and causal for all the problems that have arisen in Italy,” explained Anna Bonalume, French-Italian journalist at LCI. She recalled that last year European countries signed a solidarity pact that made it possible to “relocate migrants who arrived in Italy and help countries under migratory pressure” from which Germany is currently emigrating. “It is a first form, a European step, to share the migration pressure,” she emphasized.
Migration crisis: Italy abandoned by its European partners? Source: TF1 Info
11:40
POLITICAL REACTIONS
National Rally President Jordan Bardella called on Emmanuel Macron on Friday to commit to accepting “not a single migrant” from the Italian island of Lampedusa. “Emmanuel Macron must solemnly make this commitment: France will not accept a single migrant from the concerted Lampedusa operation,” said the head of the far-right party list for the European elections in June 2024 on X (formerly Twitter). The day before, the RN boss had already estimated that “5/5 of the signals of laxity from the EU were picked up by the smugglers and by the whole of Africa: Lampedusa, i.e. Europe, is under water”.
For her part, the leader of the Reconquête list (far right), Marion Maréchal, present in Lampedusa, assured on Friday on BFMTV that she also wanted to “give support to the Italian people (and) the Italian government, which has been abandoned by the European Union”. left in the lurch by France and who can deal with this situation alone, even though the Italian borders are not just the borders of Italy but the borders of the whole of Europe.
At Les Républicains (LR), MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, also on BFMTV, criticized a European policy that “is bankrupt on the migration issue because European law has long disarmed our states in their ability, their will, to control their rights has.” limits.
11:26
GERALD DARMANIN calls a meeting
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has called a meeting on Friday afternoon about the “migration situation” on the Italian island. “Gérald Darmanin has called a meeting on the Italian migration situation following the events in Lampedusa (Friday),” the French Interior Ministry said. This meeting must take place in the afternoon with the “relevant services” of the police, the gendarmerie and the immigration authority, it said.
In a press release sent to TF1info, the Interior Ministry added that the minister “will also discuss with his German and Italian counterparts by this evening.” “Finally, he will meet with the ministry departments again tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.,” said those close to him.
During a trip to Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes on Tuesday, Gérald Darmanin had already announced reinforcements in the fight against irregular immigration at the Italian border, where France has seen “a 100% increase in immigration flows,” he said. For more details, see this article.
11:23
THE OUTDATED WELCOME CENTER
Almost 7,000 migrants have arrived on the coast of the island of Lampedusa in recent days on 120 different boats. However, the island’s reception center only has 400 places, leaving many people crammed together with no structure to care for them. Men, women and children are forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic beds, many wrapped in survival blankets.
International
Posted today at 9:37 am.
11:19
The smugglers’ juicy business
The smuggling business, now organized in a real professional network, is at the center of the crisis in which the island of Lampedusa is currently finding itself. According to the Italian press, Hassan, one of the most powerful smugglers in Sfax, Tunisia, may be behind the massive arrival of migrants on the island. The man gave an interview to La Repubblica a few weeks ago and explained that he had gathered around him a whole network of coordinators, creditors and corrupt coast guards… He would earn average revenue of 40,000 to 70,000 euros per crossing. Details in the column below.
Migration crisis in Lampedusa: the story of a smugglerSource: TF1 Info
11:11
ITALIAN ISLAND OVERWHELMED WITH ARRIVALS
More than 7,000 people from North Africa landed in Lampedusa, one of the main gateways to Europe, on Tuesday and Wednesday, as many as the local population on this island, which has declared a state of emergency. The Italian Red Cross said on Wednesday that more than 100 boats had landed on the shores of the Italian island in one day. The association has raised the alarm because the capacity of its facilities has been significantly exceeded at 6,000 instead of 400 people. An update on the situation in this article.
11:08
WELCOME
Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the situation on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has seen a record number of migrants arrive across the Mediterranean in recent days and has declared a state of emergency. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has called a meeting on the subject to take place this Friday afternoon.