Giorgia Meloni, two years of an increasingly harsh Italian migration policy

6 mins

“ It is a new road that we are tracing, courageous and unprecedented “. It is with these words that the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the first transfer of migrants to centers in Albania where Rome will, for a period of five years, process asylum requests from single men. Even if the Italian project turned into a fiasco after a decision by the Italian courts ordering the repatriation of migrants – which the government intends to circumvent with a decree taken on the evening of Monday October 21 – the debate was launched in the European Union on the outsourcing of asylum seekers.

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And Italy has become – for some – an example to follow in terms of migration policy. The English Labor leader Keir Starmer and the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen have indeed shown interest in the Italian approach. “ With the rise of extremes and populists, Meloni has found a fertile context in Europe to push his agenda even if it is problematic from the point of view of the fundamental principles of the European Union. She was able to take advantage of the European electoral context to find allies », analyzes for RFI Sara Prestianni, director of migration advocacy at EuroMed Rights.

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A consecration for the leader of the post-fascist party who decreed the state of migration emergency after his appointment and has continued for two years to pursue an increasingly firm policy against exiles. With the Cutro decree – named after the town of Calabria where a terrible shipwreck left nearly 90 dead – she signed a major turn of the screw establishing quotas, restriction of special residence permits, facilitation of expulsions and increase in the duration retention…

Criminalization of NGOs

Continuing the policy pursued by her predecessor Matteo Salvini, the Italian Prime Minister also attacked NGOs operating at sea with the Piantedosi decree. Signed in 2022, it requires NGO ships to go to a port assigned by Italian authorities after each rescue. This decree had dramatic consequences, according to NGOs. In 2023 alone, Rome has made 23 rescue vessel arrests. “ This amounts to 540 days of paralysis during which NGO ships were unable to rescue [de migrants] on one of the deadliest roads in the world », according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). According to a report by the NGO SOS Humanity, which regularly denounces the remoteness of ports designated by the Italian state, humanitarian organizations have lost the equivalent of more than a year of time at sea with this law.

“ Generally speaking, Meloni’s policy can be summarized by the continuity of the logic of externalization, the criminalization of solidarity and migrants », relates Sara Prestianni. Recently, the Italian executive even reformed the sale of SIM cards to prevent irregular migrants from obtaining them, thus depriving them of a valuable communication tool to contact their family or continue their journey to Europe.

Foreign policy

And like her European counterparts or predecessors, Giorgia Meloni used diplomatic leverage to implement a policy of externalization of borders. Thus, it was she who signed an agreement last April with the Tunisia of Kaïs Saïed to reduce the departures of migrants from the Tunisian coasts. An agreement has since been strongly criticized by humanitarian actors, but also the European Parliament, because of the mistreatment suffered by migrants in Tunisia, particularly since the hateful speech made by the president at the start of the year. Today, hundreds of migrants live in unsanitary conditions in the Tunisian desert, fleeing attacks and rackets.

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Such agreements are not in the interest of the foreign policy of States because if we take the example of Tunisia, the relationship is not focused on the interest of having a stable neighbor with a rule of law, but in the interest in the regime in place being legitimized in the name of stopping migrants. And we turn a blind eye to the persecutions “, judges the expert who denounces an agreement ” problematic from the point of view of the fundamental principles of the European Union, respect for fundamental rights and the rights of migrants “.

“Short-term management”

In any case, the Prime Minister is boasting today of the great success of her policy, highlighting immigration figures which have fallen by 65% ​​compared to last year. According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 55,000 people arrived between January 1 and October 18, 2024, compared to 140,000 compared to the same period last year. A figure has moderated, according to Ms. Prestianni, because the year 2023 was marked by massive departures from the Tunisian coast following the anti-migrant remarks of the Tunisian president and the worsening economic crisis. “ If we compare to 2022, we can see very clearly that the drop is much less steep,” she believes. Two years ago, 76,000 people reached Italian shores between January and October. “With each new agreement, there is a drop, then the crossings end up resuming because we do not know until when Kaïs Saïed will have an interest in preventing the crossings », she adds.

“ This is short-term management. We are closing roads but the problem is far from being resolved. Conflicts, climatic or economic crises which push people to leave their countries are getting worse, so it is not this policy which will dissuade them, adds the expertthey will simply head towards another route “. Like that of the Canaries which has seen its attendance explode in recent months? “ History has shown us that when we close one road, another opens “.

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