Wednesday September 19, 2018
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called for a European response to the flow of migrants from Africa and the Middle East after bilateral talks in Rome on Tuesday.
The two leaders met ahead of an informal summit of European Union (EU) leaders to be held in the Austrian city of Salzburg on Sept. 19-20, where migration is expected to be high on the agenda.
Conte took office earlier this year as the head of a populist-rightwing coalition, whose hardline anti-immigrant stance made international headlines when it closed the nation's ports to humanitarian vessels carrying rescued migrants.
In August, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused for a week to let some 100 migrants disembark from the Italian Coast Guard's Diciotti vessel after its crew had rescued them in the Mediterranean.
"If we don't want another Diciotti case we need a European response," Conte told reporters at a press conference after meeting with Kurz.
The Italian premier called it "absolutely unreasonable" that the EU is paying billions to Turkey to stem the flow of refugees from the Middle East while disregarding the countries on the North African coast, which is where sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers leave from.
In 2016, the EU agreed to pay Turkey 6 billion euros (7 billion U.S. dollars) to stem the flow of refugees into Europe from Syria, where a civil war has been raging since 2011.
"There are many countries in Africa with which we should reinforce cooperation -- not only those where the migrant trafficking originates, but also those of transit," Conte said.
He called for "a review of the operational protocols" of the EU's EUNAVFOR MED mission and its Frontex border patrol agency. "They must be updated" to reflect the current situation, said Conte.
The EU launched EUNAVFOR MED in 2015 to combat migrant and oil traffickers in the Mediterranean. The mission was nicknamed Operation Sophia after a baby born aboard a German vessel, whose Somali mother was rescued at sea and taken to Italy.
Conte was echoed by Kurz, who took office last year. He leads the conservative Austrian People's Party and governs in coalition with the far-right, anti-immigrant and euroskeptic Freedom Party.
"Austria is very happy that Italy has managed to noticeably reduce the flow of migrants to Italy, which is positive not only for Italy but also for Austria and for Europe," said the chancellor.
"We must find an overall solution on a European level to continue reducing this flow -- we're still not where we want to be, but we're going in the right direction."
Kurz said the EU should concentrate on defending its external borders by "improving and reinforcing" the Frontex mandate, take steps to "block illegal immigration and ruin the business model of the migrant traffickers," and increase its cooperation with migrant countries of origin and transit.
Every year, tens of thousands of men, women and children pay migrant traffickers exorbitant amounts to ferry them across the Mediterranean to Europe, often on unseaworthy boats.
The inflow of asylum seekers has become a hot-button issue with European voters, many of whom have turned to far-right anti-immigrant parties as a result.
According to the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 20,777 migrants reached Italy by sea as of Sept. 16 this year, down from a total of 102,544 arrivals in 2017.