The counter-exodus has begun. We are not talking, of course, about all the Italians who are still enjoying their well-deserved holidays. But about another return home. That of migrants. Repatriations on the rise and landings in sharp decline. A phenomenon that began at the end of 2023, but which has recently been consolidating more and more, even in these summer months when the arrivals of refugees on our coasts generally increase.
The drop in landings is significant: -62% since the beginning of the year. With an emblematic figure that highlights the effectiveness of the agreements with Tunisia and Libya: -58,578 departures from the two African states since the beginning of the year. Repatriations, on the other hand, are up 20%: as of August 4, there were 3,149. Suffice it to say that in the whole of 2023 there were 4,743 (4,304 in 2022). Not to mention that there are also the so-called assisted voluntary repatriations; in the first six months of 2024 there were almost 9,000: 5,111 from Libya, 3,800 from Tunisia. The agreement signed by Giorgia Meloni with Tunisian President Kais Saied is one of the main factors in the “counter-exodus”. As of July 31 of this year, there were 46,030 blocked departures of irregular migrants (in Libya about 12 thousand).
This change of direction was also underlined by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi in connection from the Viminale on the day of Ferragosto with the operations rooms of the Police Forces, the Fire Brigade, the Department of Civil Protection, the Port Authorities and the Local Police of Rome Capital: «We are comforted by the results achieved on the repatriation front which show an increase of 20%, also thanks to the recent extraordinary operations conducted by all the Police Headquarters to remove irregular migrants from our country. This year alone, the departure of almost 60 thousand migrants from the coasts of Libya and Tunisia has been prevented, countries from which, with the support of international organizations, over 9 thousand migrants in the last 6 months alone have benefited from assisted voluntary repatriations, Piantedosi explained. A 360-degree strategy that this year has led to a reduction in landings on our coasts of over 62% compared to 2023, compared to an increase in arrivals of over 150% along the Western Mediterranean route and 57% on the Eastern one.
It is no coincidence that in Greece an increase in the flow by sea of 222% was recorded (15 thousand landings against 4,700 the previous year), while Spain recorded an increase of 152% (20,774 refugees compared to 8,220 in 2023). Particularly significant is what happened in Lampedusa where in the first 7 months of this year 21 thousand migrants arrived, equal to 64% less than in the same period of 2023 when there were 58 thousand».
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One of the novelties introduced by this government that concerns the island is also the “diversion” of NGO ships to other ports. Just yesterday, the 199 migrants on board the Humanity 1 arrived in Genoa. What is happening this year, with such a dramatic drop in arrivals, has few precedents. In the last decade there have only been two other similar moments. The first dates back to when Marco Minniti was at the Viminale. Minister of the Democratic Party who was strongly criticized by his own political party precisely because of his agreements with Libya. In 2017, in fact, landings fell by 34%, going from 181 thousand to 119 thousand. The record for blocking arrivals, however, belongs to Matteo Salvini’s almost two years as Minister of the Interior. In 2018, -80% of migrants landed (23,370 in total), in 2019 -50% (only 11,471).
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2024-08-19 06:20:25
