Interior ministers Matteo Salvini of
Italy, Horst Seehofer of Germany and Herbert Kickl of Austria
said after talks in Innsbruck Thursday that an "axis of the
willing" led by Vienna, Berlin and Rome would curb migrant
departures and landings in Europe, so that only those who are
really fleeing was arrive in Europe.
Italian proposals on migrants should become EU ones, Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini said after three-way talks in Innsbruck
Thursday with German and Austrian counterparts Horst Seehofer
and Herbert Kickl.
"It will bring satisfaction if Italian proposals become
European ones with a reduction of migrant departures, landings
and costs," he said.
"If the Italian model becomes European it will be cause for
pride".
Premier Giuseppe Conte said after talks with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel before the second day of a NATO summit
Thursday that "an excellent opening on migrants came as far as
the enactment of the conclusions that we shared at the European
Council goes".
He said "now it's a question of implementing this plan".
Conte said "this should be done with those ideas and
principles that were agreed.
"Therefore we must work on it in the coming days with her and
with the European institutions".
Conte said that "I am drafting a letter to Juncker, Tusk and
the European institutions to push Europe on the implementation
of those innovative principles on immigration that emerged from
the European Council".
He said he had discussed migrants in a tete-a-tete with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Conte added that there was no "acrimony or conflict" with
French President Emmanuel Macron and "we will defend our
positions everywhere".
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said "Italy has a backlog of
500,000 illegal immigrants and if we don't manage to expel more
than 10,000 a year we'll take 50 years to make up for the past".
He said there had been "no concrete results" from EU
initiatives in Africa.
Salvini said at an informal meeting of EU interior ministers
that "It's right to think of what will happen in a few months
but another two migrant boats are arriving in Italy with
hundreds of migrants.
"My problem is today, not a few months' time".
There has still been no interior ministry indication on the
Diciotti coast guard ship offloading its 67 migrants at Trapani,
ANSA sources said.
Salvini said he wouldn't authorise any migrants to get
off the Diciotti, which docked at Trapani, before establishing
who allegedly "attacked" the crew of the ship that rescued them,
the Vos Thalassa.
Two alleged "troublemakers" among the 67 rescued migrants
allegedly threatened the lives of the crew on board the oil-rig
tug.
Prosecutors held a summit in Trapani to decide what measures
to take on the Vos Thalassa, where the two rescued migrants,
reportedly a Ghanian and a Sudenese, are accused of "taking over
a vessel, threats and violence against the crew".
Meanwhile a sailboat with 60 migrants aboard is heading for
the Siracusa area, while 23 Tunisians have landed at the
stepping-stone island of Lampedusa.
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