The transfer of migrants to third countries, as Italy has started to do with Albania, is not ” transposable ” In France ” for legal and institutional reasons », Estimated French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Friday October 18 while traveling at a Franco-Italian border post.
2 mins
“ I don’t believe that this idea can be transposed into France », Underlined the head of the French government. But “nWe will cooperate even more with transit countries or countries of departure. This is what theItaly with the support of the European Union, with Libya or with Tunisia, and we will cooperate with these countries “, he added.
“ Everything Italy does to control clandestine or illegal immigration flows – what we do ourselves in the same spirit, and what we are going to do ourselves – we do it for us, together, more effectively than everyone at home or everyone for themselves. And we also do it for the European Union », Also declared the French Prime Minister.
The government of Giorgia Meloni, head of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party, signed an agreement with Tirana at the end of 2023 providing for the creation of two centers in Albania, from where migrants rescued in the Mediterranean will be able to apply for asylum .
Italy presents itself as a “ model » on illegal immigration
Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing and far-right allies presented this agreement as a model for Europe and the Italian leader detailed its content on Thursday in Brussels during an informal meeting with Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece, in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“ We are very happy with the Franco-Italian relations at the moment with the Barnier government, and we are in the process of strengthening these links in the area of immigration, in the area of the fight against crime and, together, we believe that the decisions In terms of the fight against irregular immigration, it is a European fight. We are defending Europe, here from the South of Europe », insisted Antonio Tajani, the Italian Interior Minister.
The five-year agreement between Rome and Tirana covers adult men intercepted by the Italian Navy or Coast Guard in their search and rescue zone in international waters. But an Italian court invalidated this Friday the detention in Albanian centers of the first asylum seekers that Rome transferred there this week.
The decision of the judges of the migration affairs section of the Rome court constitutes a scathing setback for the Italian executive which has made the fight against irregular immigration one of its main political warhorses.
Also readImmigration: the Twenty-Seven in favor of a new law to “accelerate” returns