The European Union (EU) must work for the legal and safe entry of immigrants, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a letter addressed to the European Council, which meets between March 23 and 24. “We must all work together to reaffirm the principle that (immigrants) only enter Europe legally and thus under conditions of complete security and protection”Meloni stated in the letter, which was made available to the press this Wednesday.
The Italian Prime Minister called on the EU to do just that “develop and streamline legal migration channels, divided between those entitled to protection and those planning to enter for work reasons”, as well as “unhesitatingly combat criminal groups that promote mass illegal migration”. Meloni said so too “Without concrete intervention from the EU, migratory pressures will be unprecedented from the coming weeks and throughout the year, given the difficult context in which large parts of the planet are affected”.
The Italian leader also called for urgent funding for migrants’ homelands to aid development and prevent people from leaving in search of a better life.
The issue of immigrants has returned to the forefront of international politics after the major shipwreck off Calabria, in southern Italy, that took place on Sunday. Eighty-two survivors of the shipwreck were rescued and 64 bodies were located, although the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has indicated that the death toll could exceed 100.
The ship, which left the coast of Turkey four days before the sinking, was carrying about 200 migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. “The shipwreck that occurred a few days ago a few meters off the coast of Crotone (Calabria), in which dozens of people died, many of them children, shocked us all”Meloni stated in the letter.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. In Italy, we have been mourning for years for tragedies such as last Sunday’s, in which those who try to reach our coast in makeshift boats lose their lives at sea”he underlined. “It is our moral obligation, even more than our political one, to do everything we can to prevent such misfortunes from happening again.”added Giorgia Meloni.
Source: DN
