The French Interior Minister travels to Italy this Monday to discuss how to help the country’s government control the border, prevent the avalanche of immigrants arriving in Lampedusa and expel undocumented immigrants.
In an interview broadcast on radio Europe 1 and CNews, Gérald Darmanin insisted that this is the application of the European agreement on immigration from last June, which provides for joint action to reduce the flow of immigrants from the southern shore of the Mediterranean. and an analysis of asylum applications. .
The minister reiterated the idea that France “will help Italy control its border to prevent the arrival of people”, on the one hand, and will keep those who enter illegally at the border while their case is examined, to determine if they have the right to asylum. . .
“When this does not happen, the objective is to expel them quickly to their countries. We will only take them in if they respect the asylum rules, if they are persecuted. But if it is simply irregular immigration, France cannot take them in, nor can other countries,” the minister stressed, when asked about the people who arrived in Lampedusa in recent days.
The minister indicated that of the 8,000 to 9,000 who arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa “many do not suffer political persecution and, therefore, should be expelled.”
“We have to expel from their countries those who have nothing to do in Europe,” he insisted, after warning that “France is very firm” on this issue.
He also justified the support he now shows to the government of the far-right Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, with the fact that many of the immigrants who arrive from North Africa through Italy try to go to France.
The French minister took advantage of the occasion to attack the French extreme right, which he accused of lacking patriotism for not wanting to vote in the European Parliament in favor of the agreement reached between the member countries.
Source: TSF
