European Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited
Lampedusa on Sunday after the latter invited the former to the
island to see for herself the scale of the migrant emergency.
The leaders went to Lampedusa's migrant hotspot and the island's
Favaloro quay, where many migrant boats from North Africa land
each day.
Meloni has said the surge in migrant arrivals has put Italy
under "unsustainable pressure".
Around 127,000 migrants have entered Italy so far this year,
approximately twice as many as in the same period in 2022.
Many of them enter via Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island.
There were moments of tension when a group local people staged a
protest that blocked the way of the convey taking Meloni and von
der Leyen from the island's airport to its migrant hotspot.
Meloni told them that "we are doing everything we can" and
stressed that she had "shown up in person" to face the
emergency.
Talks calmed the situation and the locals to cleared the road.
"If anyone thought that, in the face of the current global
crisis, this issue would go away, they were mistaken," Meloni
told a news conference.
"With this level of (migrant) flows, if we do not all work
together, the border states will be affected first and then
everyone else will.
"It is a problem that involves everyone and must be tackled by
everyone.
"The presence of von der Leyen (here) is a sign of awareness".
She reiterated her view that the only way to address the migrant
emergency is to halt flows at the source, rather than trying to
redistribute the migrants who arrive. "I keep saying that, faced
with these (migrant) flows, we will never solve the problem by
talking about redistribution," Meloni said.
"The only way to seriously tackle the problem is to stop illegal
departures.
"This is what the citizens are asking us for, but so are the
refugees".
She also that greater involvement of the United Nations in
facing the migrant emergency is "absolutely necessary".
Both Meloni, whose cabinet is set to approve extraordinary
measures on the migrant emergency on Monday, and von der Leyen
will take part in the UN General Assembly in new York this week.
Von der Leyen, meanwhile, presented a 10-point action plan to
address the migrant emergency.
"Italy can count on the EU," von der Leyen told the press
conference.
"It is very important to be here today together with the Italian
authorities. "Migration is a European challenge that requires a
European answer and solution. "It is concrete actions that will
bring change on the ground.
"It is only through solidarity and unity that we can achieve
this".
The 10-point plan includes a possible new EU naval mission in
the Mediterranean, faster repatriations of people whose asylum
claims have been rejected and humanitarian corridors for legal
arrivals.
"We will decide who arrives in Europe, not the traffickers," von
der Leyen added.
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