“Fighting human trafficking with EU-Africa cooperation” –

Giorgia Meloni, participating in the presidential session of the Trans-Mediterranean Forum on migration underway in Tripoli, spoke on the issue of irregular arrivals in Europe: “As I think is clear to everyone, for this Italian government the Mediterranean is a priority. And there can be no Mediterranean without Italy and Libya together. This is also why in these two years we have greatly improved our cooperation on many fronts. In this time there are challenges that we cannot face alone. Migration is one of these. And to seriously address this issue, I believe a 360-degree approach is necessary. Italy has worked hard on this, also at a multilateral level”.

“The United Nations,” Meloni continued, “tells us that human trafficking is one of the most powerful criminal traffickings in the world today. There are people who make a lot of money by exploiting the desperation of vulnerable people, and we cannot allow this, because these organizations are becoming very powerful, but they do not care regarding human rights and human beings. This is something that happens in Italy. We see it every day in Malta too. This is why we want to fight once morest human traffickers, also because illegal immigration is a phenomenon that cannot be tolerated. The most important thing we must do is create a new cooperation between Europe and Africa.”

“Libya is obviously one of our priorities. We have worked together on energy, infrastructure, training. We are working on many issues that are very strategic, for both of us. Initiatives like this help us to focus more concretely on solving this problem together, while we work bilaterally to strengthen the cooperation that is also necessary to do the rest of the work,” concluded the Prime Minister during her institutional trip.