Throughout his go to to Rome final month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated he was “vastly ” in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s strategy to migration administration, which has included a latest settlement with Albania to deal with refugees whereas their purposes for asylum are processed in addition to agreements with a number of North African international locations to bolster their efforts to counter migration to Europe. Within the weeks since then, a number of of Meloni’s counterparts amongst European Union member states have echoed Starmer’s admiration for these insurance policies, calling them a “mannequin” for the EU.
But, embracing Italy’s technique as a mannequin to be replicated elsewhere is a mistake. Offshoring duty for managing refugees and asylum-seekers could obtain short-term reductions in inflows of migrants. However it’ll end in standardizing an strategy that endangers the lives of people on the transfer, with out addressing any of the structural points that contribute to the issue.
The Italian Method
Italy is among the most energetic international locations within the EU relating to signing agreements with third international locations to curb migration flows towards its territory. Because the late Nineties, actually, Italy has included cooperation with third international locations of origin and transit within the Mediterranean area as a strategic part of its migration coverage. This pattern intensified within the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Uprisings, when the autumn of the regimes of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi led to a rise within the variety of individuals making an attempt to cross the Mediterranean. All through the mid-2010s, Italy continued to ramp up its externalization strategy in an try to scale back the rising inflow of individuals coming to Europe.
