UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to contribute approximately €4.75 million to Giorgia Meloni’s initiative to help curb irregular migration after meeting with her counterpart from Italy.
According to the Euronews the funding is part of the Rome Process an agreement signed in July 2023, and which aims to tackle the root causes of illegal migration – including conflict , economic hardship and climate change – and crack down on migrant smugglers. The twenty countries that signed up will also partner on clean energy and to improve employment perspectives in emerging economies.
Meloni received high marks from Starmer following their meeting on Monday for the “remarkable progress” Italy has made in lowering the number of migrants arriving by boat.
Left-wing Praise for Meloni
Although Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy Party, is not a natural ally of the center-left British leader, Starmer said he was trying to find out how Italy’s government has been able to address the issue so successfully because illegal migration is still at the top of the UK’s political agenda.
“You’ve made incredible strides in addressing the root causes of migration, taking on gangs, and cooperating with nations along migration routes as equals. Consequently, irregular arrivals to Italy by sea have decreased by 60 percent since 2022,” the British Prime Minister told in their joint press conference in Rome.
“So, I’m pleased that we are depening our collaboration in this area in order to dismantle gangs, share intelligence, and coordinate tactics,” he added.
Meloni concurred with Starmer, stating that the prime minister of the United Kingdom had shown interest in “new solutions,” like the agreement with Albania.
“We talked about the Italy-Albania agreement, which is a solution that the British government is showing a lot of interest in, and clearly we have offered them all the elements to better understand this mechanism that has been one of the new changes the Italian government has brought in the politics of migration flows”, Meloni stated.
Crackdown under fire
The opening of processing centers for asylum seekers in neighboring Albania has drawn criticism from Amnesty International, which refers to the move as “a stain on the Italian government.”
Strict Enforcement Amid Opposition
Thus far this year, over 22 000 migrants have entered the UK from France, a marginal increase over the same period in 2023. A boat carrying roughly sixty people ran aground on rocks late on Saturday, killing eight of the several dozen people who have died while trying to cross.
By contrast, the Interior Ministry of Italy reports that the number of migrants who arrived by boat in the first half of this year was 60% fewer than that of 2023.
After taking office in 2022, Meloni promised to crack down on immigration with the goal of discouraging would-be refugees from paying smugglers to cross the treacherous Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy. “It is our duty of course to take care of our states, but it is also our duty to take care of the fate of these people,” Giorgia Meloni said earlier.
Migrant smuggling has become a widespread and lucrative criminal activity, with a recent surge seen in illegal groups operating in countries such as Tunisia and Libya, gateways into Europe via the Mediterranean route.
Meloni’s government has struck agreements to prevent departures with specific African nations, such as Tunisia, clamped down on human traffickers, limited the operations of humanitarian rescue ships, and taken other steps to discourage people from leaving.
Additionally, Italy and Albania have an agreement that states that adult male migrants who are rescued at sea while attempting to reach Italy will be transferred to Albania while their asylum claims are being handled.
But on Saturday, Palermo-based Italian prosecutors disclosed that they were pursuing a six-year prison term for far-right Lega leader and deputy prime minister Meloni, for his part in the 2019 denial of permission for a humanitarian NGO ship transporting migrants to dock close to Lampedusa. October is when Salvini’s case will be heard. Since then, the Italian premier and his coalition partner have fully supported Salvini.