Italian Prime Minister: Immigrant flows harm all countries

2023-07-23 16:18:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Illegal migrant flows are harming all countries along the Mediterranean, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday, as she called on countries to fight together against human traffickers.

In contrast to her harsh rhetoric of the past, Meloni told an international conference in Rome that her government is open to accepting more people through legal channels because "Europe and Italy need immigration."

"Mass illegal immigration harms every one of us. "No one benefits from it, except for criminal groups, who get rich at the expense of the most vulnerable, and who use their power against governments," she said on July 23, Reuters reports.

Earlier this month, Italy pledged to issue 452,000 new work visas to citizens of non-EU countries from 2023 to 2025, increasing the number of permits each year to a record 165,000 in 2025. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Italy issued just 30,850 visas.

The conference, which aims to build a partnership between countries on a range of issues, is being attended by representatives of many countries, including Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, Libya, and the European Union.

"International human traffickers are not welcome in our country", said the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, at the conference.

Meloni, who has led a right-wing government since October last year, is pledging to involve other countries in efforts to curb mass immigration and fight traffickers.

Immigrant arrivals in Italy are up in 2023, with over 83,000 people arriving so far this year, compared to around 34,000 during the same period in 2022.

Meloni said that the main focus of the conference is to support development in Africa, with "long-term non-predatory partnerships... based on mutual respect".

"The West has given the impression that it is more interested in teaching lessons than helping... and this has made it more difficult to achieve progress on strategic issues," she said./ Rel