French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin was welcomed in Rome by his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi to “help Italy secure its borders” following the influx of migrants to Lampedusa.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin arrived in Rome on Monday evening, where he delivered a message of “determination” over illegal crossings across the Mediterranean following the influx of migrants to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
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“At the request of the president (Emmanuel Macron), I am going to Rome” to offer Italy help in “maintaining its external border,” the main gateway from North Africa to Europe, Darmanin said on Monday.
According to the UN migration agency, around 8,500 people – more than the entire population of Lampedusa – arrived on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday.
This situation has placed a severe strain on the island’s reception capacity, triggered a political shockwave in Italy and reopened the delicate question of European solidarity in the reception and distribution of asylum seekers, as well as support to the countries on the front line of these arrivals.
“It is not possible to convey the message to the people who come to our (European) soil that they will definitely be welcomed,” stressed Gérald Darmanin, who, however, wanted to show “determination”.
“We have to apply European rules,” he added: France will be able to “welcome” people who are persecuted “for political reasons.” But in “60%” of cases “they come from countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Gambia,” where “there is no humanitarian problem.”
New measures in Italy
“We must protect the external borders of the European Union and, above all, immediately examine asylum applications and, if they are not admissible, send them back to their country,” he said.
This message was aimed at Italy’s right-wing and far-right government, whose leader Giorgia Meloni on Sunday criticized its European partners for not showing solidarity with Italy, which has welcomed almost 130,000 people since the beginning of the year, almost double the number in the year 2022 in the same period.
In Paris, it is pointed out that Rome has not yet requested the distribution of migrants and Meloni is persuaded to consider asylum applications in Italy, while at the same time putting pressure on the Tunisians to better control the exit.
Without waiting for a European response, the Italian government approved on Monday new measures to stem the influx of arrivals, in particular by creating more detention centers for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected and increasing the maximum duration of such detention from four to eighteen months.
On Sunday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented an emergency plan for Lampedusa.
This ten-point aid plan to deal with the emergency migration flows to Italy provides for a better distribution of asylum seekers among European countries and makes their return easier.
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It is intended to combine a decisive stance against smugglers with making it easier for asylum seekers to legally enter Europe.
“Reheating old recipes”
Italy’s European partners, the first country to enter the EU on this migration route, must do their part, the president of the European Commission said on Sunday.
“The answer must be found in cooperation between Europeans” and “between Europeans and Tunisia,” agreed French diplomatic chief Catherine Colonna at the United Nations on Monday.
In a joint statement, more than 80 associations, including sea rescue NGOs, complained about “old recipes that the European Union has been rehashing for decades and which have all failed.”
“For her part, Marine Le Pen, leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) group in the French National Assembly, criticized the European Union on TF1 and called for the construction of a “legal wall” against immigration.
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In France, authorities are anticipating a massive influx of migrants at the Italian border following the new arrivals and are planning to set up a “room” with a hundred additional detention places at the border police headquarters in Menton.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous sea migration route in the world. Since the beginning of the year, over 2,000 migrants have been killed there.