Despite his empty words on distributing migrants within the European Union, the government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is in fact planning to double immigration, League party leader Matteo Salvini said.
Compared with 2019, when the number of immigrants entering Italy was just above 11,000, in 2020 that number rose to more than 32,000. Draghi emphasized that the COVID-19 epidemic had completely disrupted the distribution of migrants between EU member states, which had already proved to be “sporadic.”
Salvini said that with European funding concentrated on post-pandemic economic recovery, the Italian Ministry of the Interior wants to double the number of immigrants who can be resettled with a residence permit. Salvini noted that more than a 100,000 had arrived in Italy in the last two years, while just over 2,000 people had been deported last year “because of failed European agreements.”
The leader of the League noted that instead of migrants, there should be help in the labor market designed for those living on a basic income along with unemployed Italian youth.
Giacomo Ghilardi, coordinator of the mayors of the League party in Lombardy said it was “inhumane and ruthless” that more than 2,400 people died crossing the coasts of Tunisia, Libya and Italy last year.
“All of this is the responsibility of Minister if Interior Luciana Lamorgese and the left, as ports have been opened to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). (…) For the left, ideology is more important than human life,” Ghilardi said. He recalled that the trial against former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who closed the ports, continues on Friday over the 2019 arrest of a ship by the Spanish NGO Open Arms.
