In Italy significantly fewer migrants arrive than last year, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese emphasized. "We are not facing any invasion here, there were 9,600 arrivals in 2019, compared to 22,000 in 2018 all year," said the minister of La Repubblica.
In October, 379 migrants from Tunisia arrived in Italy and 243 had been deported. This corresponds to a quota of more than 60 percent.
The non-party top official and migration expert had taken over the Ministry of the Interior in the new center-left government in Rome at the beginning of September. Her predecessor Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega, accuses the government since then to reopen the doors for migrants.
In fact, the new center-left coalition has recently issued a decree aimed at reducing the processing of asylum applications from 13 "safe" countries in Africa and Europe from two years to four months.
Sven Hoppe / DPA
Italy's Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese points to sinking arrivals
More migrants with their own boats
Lega chief Salvini, referring to his allegation against the new government, whose education cost him the powerful post of Minister of the Interior almost two months ago, refers above all to an increase in arrivals in September compared to September 2018. Lamorgese said that now more Migrants "autonomously", ie with their own boats, reached Italy. But there has been this trend since April.
Lamorgese pointed out that France and Germany had agreed to take on 70 people this week, with 194 refugees and migrants arriving in Italy on the "Ocean Viking" rescue vessel. "In effect, they are already applying the pre-Malta agreement, which is starting to bear fruit," said Lamorgese.
In Malta, on 23 September, the interior ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Malta agreed on a rescue plan for the Mediterranean Sea. Rescued migrants should therefore be distributed to other EU countries within four weeks. However, so far no other country has publicly joined the agreement.
