The Italian government, chaired by the far-right Giorgia Melonihas decreed a state of national immigration emergency for the next six months, after the landing on the Italian coasts of more than 3,000 people in the last three days, local media reported today.
The measure, at the proposal of the Minister of Civil Protection and Maritime Policies, Nello Musumeci, and with an initial financing of five million euros, will be implemented throughout the national territory due to the exceptional increase in the flow of migrants through the routes of the Mediterranean.
The declaration, which was approved in a Council of Ministers in which sanctions were also adopted for those who vandalize cultural heritage, comes after a conversation held this Monday between Musumeci and the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, and which was confirmed to EFE by internal sources.
“We have gladly adhered to Piantedosi’s request, well aware of the seriousness of a phenomenon that is increasing by 300%. Let’s be clear, we are not solving the problem, whose solution is only linked to a conscious and responsible intervention by the European Union” Musumeci said.
The measure, which “allows to repeal some norms of the current legal system”“it will be national” because “we need to help the regions because there is a risk of sending the system to collapse if this rate of arrivals continues,” he added, although he insisted on the importance of Europe “realizing that there is not much time “.
“If we intervene in the countries from which we move, neutralizing the mafia of traffickers, perhaps we can avoid the worst,” Musumeci emphasized.
The Vice President of the Government and leader of the sovereignist League, the Vice-President of the Government and leader of the League Matteo Salviniby assuring that Italy is “absolutely incapable” of managing “a thousand daily arrivals” of migrants and that “it is crucial that Europe wake up and intervene.”
“He has been chatting for years, but he has never lifted a finger, and it is time to show that there is a community, a Union, and that solidarity is not only the responsibility of Italy, Spain, Greece or Malta. Because a thousand arrivals a day we are absolutely incapable to support them economically, culturally and socially,” he said.
More than 3,000 migrants have arrived in Italy in the last few hours of intense activity for the Italian coastguards, who have rescued numerous boats in danger in the Central Mediterranean this weekend.
In two complex and long operations, not yet completed, the Coast Guard intercepted on Monday two ships carrying 800 and 400 people in waters close to Sicily and Calabria (south), who have added to the nearly 2,000 people who Italian authorities had already bailed out in other operations since Friday.
“If Europe is there, since we are net contributors of billions of euros a year, it is time to show it, because we cannot do it alone,” said Salvini, explaining that “at least one repatriation center is necessary for each region “.
Arrivals in Italy have exceeded 31,000 since the beginning of 2023, almost four times more than the close to 8,000 of 2022with 3,002 migrants in the last three days, and a record of 1,389 last Friday, April 7.
Discussion about this post