Despite the very restrictive provisions of the right-wing and far-right government led by Giorgia Meloni, in 2023 the number of migrants disembarked – mostly from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Bangladesh – is 155,754 , increased by 50% compared to the previous year.
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With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
In a daily interview La Stampa (31/12), the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, recognizes that the objectives set have not been achieved. But he affirms that the collaboration of Tunisia and Libya still made it possible to block the departure to Italy of more than 121,000 asylum candidates.
Matteo Piantedosi admits that the government’s flagship measure which prohibits NGOs from carrying out more than one rescue at a time and obliges them to reach a port far from the relief zones, for landings, has not given the expected results.
For 2024, the Minister of the Interior hopes that the Albanian Constitutional Court, which should rule on the agreement between Rome and Tirana on January 18, will give the green light to the relocation to Albania of some of the migrants intercepted offshore Italian coasts.
Furthermore, he promises to strengthen support for Tunisia and Libya to help them carry out programs for the voluntary return of migrants to their countries of origin.
But in Italy, no measures have been taken to facilitate the integration of people eligible for asylum, including 17,283 unaccompanied minors, arriving in 2023.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration estimates the number of deaths in the Mediterranean at 2,571, almost a thousand more than in 2022.
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