Meloni welcomes Macron’s proposal to stop African immigration

The prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Melonireceived this Sunday with “great interest” the proposal of the French president, Emmanuel Macronto condition development aid to African countries that are “responsible” with immigration.

“I welcome with great interest the proposal for collaboration from French President Emmanuel Macron on the issue of the fight against illegal immigration,” said the Italian far-right leader in a statement shortly after the French president’s statement.

Macron proposed in an interview with TF1 and France 2 to condition development aid to sub-Saharan African countries that are “responsible” with immigration to avoid waves of landings like those this summer on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (south).

The French president said that “We must help the Italians” to face this type of crisis.

Meloni considered “evident” that Italy, France and the European Union “must act together to support the countries of origin of migrants and to help transit countries dismantle the criminal networks of human traffickers.”

“It is the direction that the Italian Government has undertaken and that it wants to keep the European institutions and its own European allies together”finished the prime minister.

In the interview, the French head of state dissected the migration issue in the countries of origin, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, and those of transit, such as Tunisia, from where most of the boats that reach the Italian coasts such as Lampedusa set sail.

“The majority of immigrants come from sub-Saharan Africa, with which we have increased development aid. We must better condition our aid to countries with a responsible immigration policy. ‘We help you, but you must help us dismantle the trafficking networks (of immigrants)’he said.

Macron asserted that the only possible response to the migration crisis is “European”, with a unified and coordinated treatment of demands, and criticized the extreme right for addressing this issue from a nationalist point of view.

“Europe is the continent that does the most, we French do our part, welcoming more and more children (…) But we must be rigorous, we have a generous social model, we cannot welcome all the misery in the world”he added.

So far this year, 132,867 immigrants have landed on the country’s coasts, double that of the same period in 2022 (69,498) and triple that of 2021 (43,756), according to data from the Ministry of the Interior updated last Friday.

Macron’s idea comes while Rome complains about the blockade of migrants arriving at the Italian-French border and who are trapped in the Italian municipality of Ventimiglia (northwest).

In fact, the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, will travel this week to France and Germany to ask for some explanations about the management of these countries in immigration matters.

The Vice President of the Government also plans to discuss the situation in Ventimiglia tomorrow, Monday in Paris with his counterpart Catherine Colonna and on Thursday he will arrive in Berlin to speak with the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock. “about the decision of the German Government to finance the NGO” that rescue immigrants in the Mediterranean, as announced today on RAI public television.