EU must work for legal, safe migrant entry says Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 1 - The EU must work for legal, safe migrant entry into the UNion, Premier Giorgia Meloni said in her letter to the European Council which has secured a slot at the March 23-4 EU summit for the migrant question.
    "We must al work together to reaffirm the principle that you only enter Europe legally and therefore in a condition of total safety and security," she said in the letter, a copy of which was made available Wednesday.
    She called on the EU to "develop and boost legal migration channels, split between those who are entitled to protection and those who intend to enter for work reasons," as well as ''fighting without hesitancy the criminal clans that feul mass illegal immigration.
    Meloni said that ''without concrete intervention by the EU, starting in the coming weeks and for the whole year, migrant pressure will be unprecedented, given the difficult context that strikes vast zones of the planet''.
    Meloni also called for urgent funding for the countries of migrant origin to aid development there and stop people having to leave in search of better lives.
    The migrant issue has returned to the forefront of international politics with a major shipwreck off Calabria that is thought to have claimed over 100 lives. (ANSA).