Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's immigration strategy is starting to bear fruit, with figures showing illegal immigration has fallen by nearly two-thirds compared to last year.
Statistics released this week by the Italian Ministry of the Interior Showed So far this year, 41,530 illegal immigrants have landed on the country's shores.
While the figure is still historically high, it represents a 64% decrease compared to the same period last year, when 114,513 people were recorded reaching Italy's shores amid a huge wave of irregular migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa, particularly Tunisia. The figures also represent a decrease compared to 2022, when irregular migration was still hampered by the impact of the coronavirus.
There is also a notable difference in the number of unaccompanied minor arrivals, with 5,044 recorded so far this year compared to 18,820 in 2023.
Meloni has faced criticism both at home and abroad for failing to take a tougher approach to illegal immigration. Naval blockade Instead of suspending its activities in the Mediterranean, the European Commission opted for a diplomatic solution through the Brussels mechanism and worked closely with EU Secretary-General von der Leyen to negotiate agreements with countries such as Tunisia and Egypt to crack down on trafficking networks in exchange for European aid.
Trade with Tunisia Libya There have also been successes in repatriating illegal immigrants, with 5,000 people already deported to Libya this year and 4,000 to Tunisia since January.
Meloni also negotiated a bilateral agreement with Albania to open a refugee processing center to process asylum seekers' applications, rather than allowing them to remain in Italy while they await decisions. The agreement has not yet come into force, but is not expected to do so within the next few weeks, raising fears that they could be deported by Italian authorities. credit It acts as a deterrent to further illegal immigration.
Italy's populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni negotiates EU deal on illegal migration with Tunisiahttps://t.co/p8Xn3jr732
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 17, 2023
Meroni's government is also trying to toughen domestic laws, including imposing tougher penalties on traffickers and migrant boat captains, restricting the work rights of some asylum seekers, and cracking down on open-border NGOs that the government accuses of aiding traffickers in transporting migrants to Europe.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, an ally of immigration hardliner Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Explained This approach is the government's “360 degree strategy” to reduce illegal immigration.
Piante Dosi said Earlier this month, it announced that the government's next priority would be to launch a “financial investigation to combat criminal organisations controlling migrant trafficking”.
While Meloni's strategy appears to be working for Italy, it has coincided with a surge in illegal migration to EU countries along the Mediterranean coast, with socialist Spain seeing 155 arrivals this year and Greece seeing a 222 percent surge in arrivals. According to French Figaro.
The Italian prime minister's relative success has solidified her support, helping her Italian Brothers party soar to 28.8% of the vote in June's European Parliament elections, four times more than it got in the last elections in 2019 and surpassing the 26% it won in the 2022 Italian elections when she took power. Having led her party through the EU elections herself, Meloni has also solidified her status as a major power in Brussels, where she now heads the EU's third-largest coalition government.
Marion Maréchal, a member of the European Parliament from Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party and niece of French populist leader Marine Le Pen, said of the success in reducing illegal immigration: Written Regarding X: “The Meloni method works! There is no inevitability when it comes to migrants. We can act to prevent their arrival on European shores.”
Italian Foreign Minister Giorgia Meloni tells UN that open border hypocrites are 'immeasurably enriching' migrant smugglershttps://t.co/mPDiv4mWqE
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 21, 2023
