Rome Over the Easter weekend alone, almost 40 boats with around 2,000 people from North Africa arrived on Italy’s islands. Since the beginning of the year, the Interior Ministry has counted more than 31,000 people who have made their way via the Mediterranean route – compared to the same period last year, the numbers have almost quadrupled. This March alone, there were more than 13,000 refugees.
The right-wing government coalition around Giorgia Meloni, which has led the country since last October, decided to take drastic measures in view of the numbers: on Tuesday evening her cabinet declared a nationwide state of emergency. This is initially valid for six months and is intended to provide the particularly affected regions in the south with five million euros.
The state of emergency gives the government special power, it is easier to make ad hoc decisions. With the regulation, new reception centers for illegal refugees could now be set up in order to be able to identify and deport people more quickly.
There are currently ten such institutions in the country, spread across nine regions. More beds and new centers are urgently needed, but also ships and buses to distribute people from the already overcrowded hotspots.
According to the Interior Ministry, around 115,000 refugees are currently in Italy. People from Ukraine, who enjoy special protection because of the Russian war of aggression, are not included. According to a government statement, the sharp increase in the flow of refugees is leading to “a severe overcrowding in the initial reception centers and in particular in the hotspot of Lampedusa”. A further increase in departures in the coming months is “foreseeable”.
Too few beds, hardly any showers, no internet
In Italy, the topic of migration has been discussed for years. The country feels abandoned by Europe at its outer borders. A number of people set off again and again from Tunisia and Libya, often in unseaworthy boats, to reach the Italian holiday island of Sicily or the island of Lampedusa, which is just 113 kilometers off the Tunisian coast. Many boats also try to reach the mainland or the European island state of Malta.
Currently more than 1600 people are accommodated on the small Italian island, but there are only 400 beds.
(Photo: ROPI)
The highly dangerous crossings sometimes lead to devastating accidents. The most recent worst happened in Calabria at the end of February. At least 90 people died off the coast of Cutro, almost a third were children.
Helpers were there too late, also because there are said to have been communication problems between the EU authority Frontex and the Italians. The mood in the country heated up to such an extent that Meloni symbolically relocated her cabinet meeting to the town – and announced tough measures against people smugglers there.
On Lampedusa, which is just 20 square kilometers in size, the situation has been out of control for months. More than 1,600 people are currently staying in the reception center, including 450 children. However, the center only has 400 beds. Aid organizations complain about the conditions: there is a lack of clothes and shoes, there are too few showers in the center and there is no functioning internet so that the refugees can communicate with their relatives at home.
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Normally, the national state of emergency is declared after strong earthquakes – or in the case of health emergencies, such as the one recently during the corona pandemic. Even in 2016, the previous record year with 181,000 refugee arrivals, the government did not declare a state of emergency. As in the pandemic, a special commissioner will now be appointed to deal with the issue on behalf of the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Salvini: “Europe hasn’t lifted a finger”
Criticism of the measure came from the opposition: “We are a country with 60 million inhabitants, with the refugees counted in 2021, less than 200,000, not even the Circus Maximus in Rome can be filled,” said the social democrat Marwa Mahmoud in the newspaper ” Republica”. In Germany alone, 478,000 refugees arrived in the same period.
The government had to take back its language, describing the people as “irregular”. “But there are no such things as irregular creatures, we’re not talking about expired food here.”
>> Read here: Italy tightens penalties for people smugglers: up to 30 years in prison
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini attacked the EU again. “It is fundamental that Europe wakes up and intervenes,” said the head of the right-wing Lega, who was already noticed years ago as interior minister with a heavy hand on migration issues. “Europe has been talking for years, but hasn’t lifted a finger,” explained Salvini, who, as the new infrastructure minister, should actually be primarily concerned with the construction of railway lines and motorways. “We absolutely cannot manage to handle 1000 arrivals a day.”
Italy’s tough line has long been a source of disputes in the EU. Shortly after taking office, Rome blocked its ports for the boat of an aid organization with 230 migrants in November, it had to continue to France.
Since then, the relationship between Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron has cracked. To date, there has not been a mutual visit to take office. Even Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella had to intervene personally to calm the diplomats in Paris.
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