Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held a meeting with interim Tunisian Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh at the Palazzo Chigi, the official residence of the Italian PM, just a day after Ms. Meloni travelled to the Tunisian capital on Tuesday, June 6th, to meet with President Kais Saied.
According to a report from the newspaper Il Giornale, the meetings largely focused on several ongoing issues, including illegal immigration in the Central Mediterranean as Tunisia is the primary country used for illegal entry into Europe.
Following her brief visit to Tunisia, Meloni remarked on social media that she was pleased there had been a reduction in illegal arrival numbers in both March and April compared to the prior months and stated that Italy was focused on supporting both stability and democracy in the North African nation.
Part of the plan to help Tunisia achieve stability was announced Wednesday with Meloni vowing to send around $750 million in aid to Tunisia and advocate for the country to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a possible bailout.
During the meeting in Tunis, President Saied also spoke out about illegal migration, blaming foreign gangs and saying the problem was, “worsening by the day,” and called those responsible “organ and human-trafficking criminal gangs.”
PM Meloni, meanwhile, has stated that she is ready to engage with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on migration and that a possible international conference on migration may be held in Rome, with Tunisian President Saied also expected to attend.
While President von der Leyen and EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson backed tackling the issue of illegal immigration earlier this year, with EU countries agreeing to limit visas and try to increase the low number of deportations from EU member states, the situation in the Central Mediterranean has only worsened over the last year.
Despite calls for more deportations, some EU Commissioners have advocated for an increase in overall migration to Europe, such as European Commissioner for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica, who stated last November that an increase in migrants from areas such as Africa was needed to combat demographic problems in Europe.
According to statistics from the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, over 51,000 illegal migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year compared to January-May of last year when just over 19,400 illegals set foot on Italian territory.
While Prime Minister Meloni has only been in power since October of last year, she has previously made promises to tackle illegal migration numbers, including proposing a naval blockade of the Mediterranean in order to stop boats from passing into Italian waters prior to her election.
In August of last year, Meloni said,
Fratelli di Italia are proposing a naval blockade because, as we have explained a thousand times, it is a matter of a European mission in agreement with North African states to stop—alongside them—human trafficking and to set up in African territory hotspots managed alongside the European Union to assess asylum requests and distinguish between those who have a right to asylum and international protection from those who do not.
While the blockade proposal was publicly supported by Italian Rear Admiral Nicola De Felice last November, no such policy has yet been implemented.
