Italy criticizes Germany's plans to fund migrant charities

2023-09-25 00:11:09, Kosova & Bota CNA

Germany's plan to fund charities helping migrants in the Mediterranean causes difficulties for Italy, Defense Minister Guido Crosseto said on Sunday, as Rome tries to strengthen measures to prevent migrants from entering sea routes.

According to Italian media, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Berlin was implementing a parliamentary financial program in support of rescue teams at sea and projects on the ground.

"We have received many applications for funding. The review of the applications has been completed in two cases", the spokesman told the Reuters news agency, adding that "the amount of funding varied from 400 thousand to 800 thousand euros for each project".

The Minister of Defense of Italy, Guido Crosseto, told the newspaper "La Stampa" that Rome had seen this action by Germany as "very serious", adding that the Italian government is engaged in the fight against human traffickers who, according to him, must be dealt with. as "international criminals".

"Berlin pretends not to do such a thing, and by doing so, creates problems for a country that in theory should be a friendly country", said Mr. Crosseto.

The latest data show that so far 132,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by boat, compared to 69,000 migrants who arrived in the country in the same period last year./ VOA