Speaking in Rome, Keir Starmer said Italy had made “remarkable progress” in the fight against immigration and admitted to seeking “new solutions” that could be applied in the United Kingdom.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday praised what he called Italy’s “remarkable progress” in the fight against illegal immigration and said he agreed with “new solutions” that will also be applied in the United Kingdom.
“They have made remarkable progress, working on an equal footing with countries along migration routes to tackle the causes of migration at source and combat networks, with the result that illegal sea arrivals to Italy have fallen by 60% since 2022,” Starmer said in Rome at a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni.
Before meeting Meloni in Rome, the British Prime Minister visited the National Coordination Centre for Migration on Monday morning, also in the Italian capital, justifying his visit to Italy on that occasion with the desire to understand the success in reducing the arrivals of irregular immigrants to Italian territory.
“The influx of illegal immigrants into Italy has decreased dramatically, so I want to understand how this happened.“Starmer said, adding that he has long believed that “stopping people from leaving is one of the best ways to solve this problem.”
Elected prime minister last July, the Labour leader, who rejected the previous Conservative government’s plan to expel migrants to Rwanda, faced the biggest riots in the UK since 2011, which targeted mosques and migrant shelters across the country, now admitting to replicating the Italian “model”.
Starmer admitted to being particularly interested in the agreements established by the Meloni government with the authorities of Libya and Tunisia, to reduce the number of departures from these two Maghreb countries, but the controversial agreement established in November last year between Rome and Tirana with a view to creating two immigrant centres in Albania,
“We discussed the Italy-Albania protocol, to which the British Government is paying close attention. We provided elements that allow a better understanding of this mechanism,” Meloni revealed.
“The model imagined by the Italian government of centres to process asylum applications under Italian and European jurisdiction in a foreign country had never been tested and, if it works, and I believe it does, everyone will understand that there is a turning point also for “the deterrent against criminals who trust”, added the Italian Prime Minister, guaranteeing that the centres in question will be fully operational in a matter of “weeks”.
Starmer’s visit to Italy, currently governed by a right-wing and far-right coalition led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (‘Fratelli d’Italia’), drew criticism even from figures within his own party, with one MP, Kim Johnson, deploring the British leader’s “seeking lessons from a neo-fascist government”.
Starmer, and the Prime Minister argued that it was simply a matter of being “pragmatic”.
“Today was, so to speak, a return to British pragmatism. We are pragmatic in the face of a challenge, we discuss with our friends and allies the different approaches that are being taken, we analyse what works,” he said.
According to data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the number of migrants arriving by sea this year has decreased considerably compared to 2023, with 44,675 arrivals recorded from January 1 to September 13, compared to 125,806 in the same period last year.
Since last year, various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the Mediterranean have been denouncing what they call a “war policy” directed against them by the current Italian government headed by Giorgia Meloni, who they accuse of restricting humanitarian access in the central Mediterranean, considered the most dangerous migration route in the world.
Source: Observadora
