Italy Calls for Emergency Meeting to Stop Immigrants Flow

Italy asks the European Commission (EC) and the Slovene periodical presidency of the European Union to hold an emergency conference of the European Council of Interior Affairs to face the flow of irregular immigrants to the Italian coasts, according to Aki, an Italian news agency.

Luchana Lamorgese, Italy’s Minister of Interior talked on the phone with YlvaJohansson, the European Commissaire of Internal Affairs to discuss the flow of immigrants via the middle part of the Mediterranean Sea.

A note issued by the Italian Ministry of the Interior indicated that Lamorgese stressed during the call "the urgent need to change the pace of interventions on immigration policy in the European Union, in light of the serious political and economic crises affecting some North African countries and the ever-increasing number of migrants arriving during the summer months."

The minister also called for the "immediate activation, albeit temporarily, of a mechanism in which the Member States participate to allow a safe landing, in line with anti-COVID-19 measures, for ships of non-governmental organizations flying European flags currently participating in search and rescue operations in international waters."

The Italian official renewed the call for "the resumption of negotiations on the new migration and asylum charter (proposed by the Commission) for the principle of solidarity among member states for the compulsory redistribution of migrants rescued at sea", to follow up on what was agreed upon in the European Council on June 24, where the Commission was invited.

She suggested also to immediately strengthen actions with countries of origin and transit of migratory flows to give them concrete support.”

The Italian interior ministry said the country has already surpassed 10,000 migrant arrivals in 2021, three times more than the same period last year. This figure doesn't include the 455 migrants brought to Italy by the NGO ship Sea-Watch 4.

The Italian interior ministry, in an update published Monday (May 3), said the country has already surpassed 10,000 migrant arrivals in 2021, with a total of 10,107 people who disembarked between January 1 and May 3.

This figure doesn't include 455 additional migrants who were brought to Italy by the NGO ship Sea-Watch 4 on Tuesday, May 4. The number is three times higher than the same period in 2020 when the total was 3,573.