After meeting with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Monday, UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced plans to pump millions of pounds into the so-called ‘Rome Process’ to tackle illegal migration.
But critics warn that this is not a sign of what Sky News described as Starmer’s “urgency” to deal with the issue. Rather, it is a “complete gimmick” done “purely for the optics.”
That is according to Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control think tank, who told GB News that the £4 million (€4.75 million) payment won’t stop the boats crossing the Channel to Britain since migrants arriving via Mediterranean routes—down 60% under Meloni’s watch—are a “tiny proportion” of those coming into Europe and eventually making their way to the UK.
Bates added that “ultimately, we can throw as much money as we want at the Italians … But the flows will continue to Britain so long as the pull factors that are currently in place remain in place.”
Meloni’s ‘Rome Process’ is designed to reduce illegal migration by tackling its root causes and cracking down on people smugglers. Starmer has so far focused most of his efforts on the latter aim, while his government has started labelling illegal Channel crossings as “irregular,” instead.
Fruitful or not, Politico reckons that part of the reason this meeting took place was because of pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which is working to ensure that migration—both legal and illegal—remains a hot issue. Indeed, footage of Starmer praising Meloni’s “remarkable” progress has certainly angered some vocal figures on the Left of the Labour Party.
They will be all the more incensed to learn—as per Meloni—that Starmer has shown “great interest” in Italy’s migrant deal with Albania. Under this agreement, two migrant processing centres have been opened in the Balkan nation where 36,000 migrant claims will be processed each year.
One of Starmer’s first steps in office earlier this year was to scrap the former Conservative government’s ‘Rwanda plan,’ designed to deter Channel crossings by sending migrants to the African nation for processing.
His government has claimed Italy’s deal with Albania is different from the Rwanda deportation plan. Though it may also be more willing to consider such deals given the apparent increasing number of reports of migrant deaths in the Channel.
