2023-09-17 13:10:30
“The future of Europe is at stake here,” declared the Italian Prime Minister during a press conference. “Irregular immigration is a European challenge which needs a European response,” added Ursula von der Leyen, calling on “member states to welcome” migrants who have landed in Italy. In front of the press, the President of the European Commission presented a 10-point aid plan, intended to manage the current situation, to better distribute applicants between European countries and to prevent the repetition of episodes of mass arrivals which put significant strain on the peninsula’s logistical and administrative capacities.
It is very important for me to be in Lampedusa today.
I’m here to offer a coordinated response by the Italian and European authorities.
I would like to present to you a 10 point action plan ↓ https://t.co/p1KorMPEh4
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 17, 2023
In Lampedusa, the arrivals management system quickly found itself on the verge of asphyxiation. If transfers began on Friday to relieve the island’s reception structures, the Italian Red Cross (CRI) which manages the “hotspot” indicated on Sunday that 1,500 migrants were still there, for a capacity of 400 people. , their departure towards Sicily and the continent not completely compensating for the new arrivals.
Increase returns and facilitate transfers
The aid plan presented by Ursula von der Leyen is supposed to combine firmness once morest smugglers and facilitation of legal channels of entry into the European area for candidates eligible for asylum.
Brussels first intends to strengthen assistance to Italy from the European Union Agency for Asylum and the EU coast and border guard agency, Frontex, in order to ensure migrant registration, fingerprinting, interviews, etc. Frontex, and other agencies, will also have to intensify surveillance of the seas and “study options for expanding its naval missions in the Mediterranean”.
Then, the commission also wants to facilitate the transfer of people arriving in Lampedusa – who are generally taken by boat to Sicily or on the continent – including to other European countries. “We urge other member states to use the voluntary solidarity mechanism,” declared Ursula von der Leyen, without mentioning Germany which recently decided to no longer receive migrants arriving in Italy.
The plan also plans to improve dialogue with the main emigration countries on this route with a view to the readmission of their citizens who do not meet the asylum conditions, in particular Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Awareness campaigns
The EU signed a partnership with Tunisia in July intended to reduce migrant arrivals on Italian coasts in exchange for financial aid. Ursula von der Leyen estimated on Sunday that the EU should accelerate the payment of this aid to Tunis and Giorgia Meloni raised the possibility of European aid to help the country complete its budget even though the International Monetary Fund conditions the granting a credit of 1.9 billion dollars for the adoption of reforms that President Kais Saied rejects.
Also read: EU asylum reform: painful compromises
Finally, the commission wishes to “increase awareness and communication campaigns to dissuade crossings of the Mediterranean” while “continuing to work to offer alternatives such as humanitarian admission and legal channels” of immigration.
A total of more than 127,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores since the start of the year, almost double compared to the same period in 2022.
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