Lampedusa migrant surge prompts renewed call for naval blockade from Italian leader Meloni
A naval blockade is again being urged by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to tackle a surge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
She has vowed to take “extraordinary measures” after around 7,000 landed within a day on Lampedusa, more than doubling the island’s population, overwhelming existing facilities and triggering urgent appeals for help from politicians.
The influx has become a major headache for Ms Meloni, whose right-wing government came to office in October last year pledging to curb illegal immigration.
But nearly 126,000 migrants are reported to have arrived in Italy so far this year, almost double the figure by the same date in 2022.
It has close parallels to the situation confronting the UK government in stemming migrant crossings from France, with Rishi Sunak under pressure to deliver on his “stop the boats” pledge.
Lampedusa – closer to Africa than the Italian mainland – has recently borne the brunt of crossings from Tunisia, which has replaced Libya as the main base for migrant smuggling in the Mediterranean.
Many migrants have been transferred to relieve the island’s over-stretched refugee centre, which has a normal capacity of around 400, but latest figures indicate more than 2,700 remain.
Ms Meloni has invited the head of the European Commission to see conditions on Lampedusa and called for a deal with Tunisia, aimed at stemming the flow in return for funding, to be implemented.
She also said she’d written to European Council President Charles Michel to ask for immigration to be on the agenda at an EU summit in October.
“I intend to reiterate a request for an immediate EU mission to block the departure of migrant boats,” said Ms Meloni.
“Obviously, Italy and Europe cannot welcome this massive influx of people, especially when these migrant flows are being managed by unscrupulous traffickers.”
With a European Parliament election next year, Ms Meloni’s conservative coalition partner, the League Party, has stepped up criticism of the EU-Tunisia deal, saying the increasing numbers of migrants showed it had failed.
League leader Matteo Salvini is due to host French far-right leader Marine Le Pen at a rally this weekend in his northern home base of Pontida.
On Friday, Ms Le Pen’s niece, French far-right politician Marion Marechal, was on Lampedusa to show her support to Italy, which she said had been abandoned by Europe to deal with migrants on its own.
She said: “I came to support the Italian people and government, because Lampedusa today and the Italian borders are the borders of the whole of Europe.
“We have to change EU policy to help the Italian government, which today is alone in facing this crisis.”
Meanwhile, France has agreed to work with Italy in forging an EU response to the crisis.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “I want to say very sincerely to all our Italian friends that I believe it is the responsibility of the European Union, the entire European Union, to stand by Italy.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has joined calls for the for the EU to share the burden of receiving migrants and eventually settling those who get refugee status.
“It can’t just be on those frontline states like Italy that receive the initial arrivals to have to accommodate them for the longer term,” said spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh.