Tensions between Italy and Germany over the financing of NGOs that welcome immigrants

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to complain about Germany’s funding of charities that help irregular migrants in her country, according to the text published on Monday.

“I learned with astonishment that your government, without coordination with the Italian government, had decided to provide significant funds to non-governmental organizations working to welcome irregular immigrants on Italian territory and in rescue in the Mediterranean Sea,” he wrote.

A “call for fresh air” for migrants

In the letter dated Saturday, seen by AFP, Giorgia Meloni suggests that this aid would be better used in Germany than in Italy.

And he reiterated his accusation, strongly denied by NGOs, that charity rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean act as an “air call” for migrants crossing the sea from North Africa.

He said EU countries that want to help Italy manage irregular migration would do better to focus on “structural solutions”, including working with transit countries to stop the flows.

Giorgia Meloni’s government has sought to limit the activities of charity rescue ships operating in the central Mediterranean.

5% of welcome arrivals

Its defense minister said this weekend that NGOs were hosting only about 5% of arrivals from Italy, which so far this year number more than 133,000, almost double the 70,000 in the same period last year. .

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed to AFP on Friday that it will allocate between 400,000 and 800,000 euros each to two projects related to immigrants, within the framework of a program approved by the German Parliament.

The news sparked anger within Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigration League, which shares power with Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia party.

The Minister of Defense of the Meloni government, Guido Crosetto, stated that this is a “very serious” decision that puts Italy “in difficulties.”

The criticism comes after Berlin temporarily stopped accepting migrants living in Italy, after Rome itself suspended EU rules governing the distribution of migrants.