Does the Italian PM Stand Alone Against Mass Illegal Migration?

The total number of illegal arrivals to Italy has reached 100,000 this year, double the same period last year.

Illegal immigrants wait at the operational centre called the "Hotspot" to receive registration papers from the Red Cross on the Italian island of Lampedusa, on Sept. 17, 2023. Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

Last weekend, the illegal migration crisis that has gripped Europe plunged to new depths when over 6,000 people arrived by boat on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa halfway between Tunisia and Italy.

This brings the total of illegal arrivals to over 100,000 this year, double the amount for the same period last year.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was elected on a platform of stopping these illegal arrivals, yet has faced stiff and hard-headed opposition from her political opponents in Italy and in the EU.

Ms. Meloni knows that once migrants set foot in your country it is virtually impossible to deport them anywhere.

So her policy has been geared toward stopping them from getting to Italy in the first place.

As I wrote in these pages last year, in a television interview at the time, Ms. Meloni declared, tellingly: “So, the solution is not to take Africans and bring them to Europe. The solution is to free Africans from certain Europeans who exploit it and allow these people to live off what they have.”

Since her election, Ms. Meloni has tried to get other European leaders to understand that the illegal immigration crisis cannot be left to one state to solve. The UK is dealing with a similar problem, with tens of thousands crossing the English Channel by boat from France just this year.

In Italy’s case, the boat arrivals come from Tunisia, which is bankrupt and on the verge of collapse. Its president, Kais Saied, elected in 2019, suspended democracy in 2021 and has since ruled by decree.

Like any failed state, therefore, it is fertile ground for organised crime, and in this case, people smugglers.

Illegal immigrants gather outside the operational centre called "Hotspot" on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sept. 14, 2023. Alessandro Serrano/AFP via Getty Images

No Changes on the Ground

Back in July, Ms. Meloni held a summit in Rome. As a result of her efforts, the European Union, in the presence of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, signed a deal in Tunis with President Saied in which it promised to give €105 million to Tunisia to stop the boats.

It also gave Tunisia €150 million in aid as the first tranche of a promised €1 billion aid and investment package.

Shortly after, Ms. Meloni addressed a Food and Agriculture Organisation summit in Rome, saying “Our objective is to assure the right of everyone not to emigrate, that is, to live in peace in their own land.”

Yet, the boats haven’t stopped. Why?

For several reasons.

First and foremost, Tunis has not yet received a single euro out of the promised funds from the EU.

As reported by the Italian daily, il Giornale, left-wing EU deputies in Brussels are playing political games, holding up the funds, stating that the agreement constitutes a useless attempt to try and control external borders while blocking departures of illegal migrants from Tunisia constitutes “a human rights violation.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (L) shakes hands with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting at the European Commission headquarter in Brussels, on Nov. 3, 2022. Valeria Mongelli/AFP via Getty Images

So trafficking in human misery via treacherous sea crossings set up via organised crime is not worthy of condemnation?

The fact is, as author Nicholas Farrell wrote in The Spectator, the arrivals do not come from war zones in Africa. The top three countries in this regard are Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Tunisia.

All the while, without the promised funds, Tunis cannot pay members of its coast guard and other security forces responsible for upholding the security pacts agreed to with Italy to stop the boats.

Is It Sabotage?

A key figure in this debacle is former left-wing Italian prime minister, and now Commissioner for the Economy under Ms. Von der Leyen, Paolo Gentiloni.

In other words, Ms. Meloni’s political opponents are doing everything possible to delay the implementation of the agreement, indeed sabotaging it, so as to damage her politically.

Let’s not forget the words of Ms. Von der Leyen herself before Ms. Meloni’s election victory last year, that Brussels would “punish an Italian government that violates the EU’s social policy consensus.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addresses a press conference with her Latvian counterpart during their meeting in Riga on July 10, 2023. Gints Ivuskans/AFP via Getty Images

Notwithstanding the efforts of the Italian left and its EU allies, the Tunisians still managed to stop around 40,000 arrivals this year, compared with only 15,000 in the whole of 2022.

Another factor that cannot be ignored is the recalcitrance of other EU member states, in particular France and Germany.

Just as the French let boats cross the English Channel (if the Tunisians can stop them, why can’t the French?), they do not want to take responsibility for illegal arrivals from the Italian side.

The French have just announced they are doubling down on measures to stop illegal migrants crossing from Italy. The French police stop them at the city of Mentone, the first major centre after the border with Italy, and send them back across the border to the town of Ventimiglia, leaving Italy to deal with them.

Likewise, Germany has only this year taken 1,022 arrivals, compared to the 120,000 Italy has had to deal with.

Yet Commissioner Gentiloni and his minions keep silent on these abuses under the watch of Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz.

The fact is that under Mr. Gentiloni’s predecessor, the left-wing Matteo Renzi, a deal similar to that signed with Tunisia was signed with Libya in 2017, which has reduced illegal migrant flows.

As Ms. Meloni herself said, members of the Italian and European left, for ideological, or worse, political reasons, are obstructing and doing everything possible to pull down the work that is being undertaken. Their wish is to make mass illegal immigration inevitable.

The next EU parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 2024. The left knows that if Ms. Meloni succeeds in halting illegal immigration, its chances of winning there, or any other election, are greatly diminished.

Therefore, it will do anything it can to ensure she does not succeed.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.