“This government wants to go down a road that has hardly been trodden to this day: stop illegal departures and finally put a stop to illegal human trafficking in the Mediterranean,” said the party leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia in her first meeting on Tuesday. keynote speech to the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. She wants to meet there in the evening for a vote of confidence, which her government will still need after taking office over the weekend.
“If you don’t want me to talk about naval blockades, I’ll just say so,” the 45-year-old said. She went on to say that her right-wing government, in consultation with the authorities of the North African countries, wants to set up centers in the ‘hotspot areas’ where international organizations will check whether people are entitled to asylum.
“We do not want to discuss the right to asylum for those fleeing executions,” Meloni said in her speech, which lasted more than an hour. They just want to prevent smugglers from deciding who can come to Italy.
Meloni’s statements send a bad signal to civilian rescue workers in the Mediterranean, who regularly receive hundreds of migrants en route from Libya or Tunisia to Italy. The “Humaity 1” of the organization SOS Humanity, flying the German flag, and the “Ocean Viking” of SOS Méditerranée, flying the Norwegian flag, are currently on their way there. So far, they have taken on board more than 250 migrants.
According to the Ansa news agency, the new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi – an expert close to the Lega – instructed the police and port authorities to inform the flag states that the ships were not acting in accordance with European and Italian standards for border surveillance and control and those for illegal migration.
(SDA)