Luigi Di Maio - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Italy Resumes Migrant Deportations

Sabina Castelfranco — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 08:36:41 +0000

Migrants board the ‘MS GNV Azzurra’ quarantine ship which has has been sent on the Italian Pelagie Island of Lampedusa, Aug. 4, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic

ROME – Twice-weekly charter flights of up to 80 people who Italian authorities describe as illegal economic migrants resumed this week from Italy to Tunisia. The flights, part of an Italian-Tunisian agreement, were put on hold during Italy’s COVID-19 lockdown. Italy saw a sharp increase in migration last month that has put a strain on migrant reception centers, particularly in the south of the country.

The growing number of illegal immigrants arriving from North Africa concern the Italian authorities, who have had a number of recent meetings with their Tunisian counterparts to address the issue.

At the end of July, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that unless Tunisia took significant measures to rein in the departures, Italy would suspend 6.6 million euro in cooperation funds for Tunisia’s development.

After a spike in Tunisian arrivals, Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese flew to Tunis at the end of last month.

She said that in July, the number of illegal Tunisian migrants reaching Italy increased significantly due to the country’s serious economic crisis. These, she added, are economic migrants who have no right to remain in Italy.

Migrants from Tunisia and Lybia arrive onboard an Italian Guardia Costiera (Coast Guard) boat on the Italian Pelagie Island of Lampedusa, Aug. 1, 2020.

Italy’s requests included the stepping up of controls along the Tunisian coastline and a resumption of the twice-weekly repatriation flights that were taking place ahead of the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. More than 4,000 Tunisians have arrived in Italy since the start of this year.

Following the pressure applied by the Italian Foreign Ministry, Tunisia agreed to resume the flights and said it would increase patrol teams and surveillance along its coastline in order to stem illegal migration towards Italy.

Reception centers in Italy, having to deal with the COVID-19 emergency, have been struggling to cope with the number of migrants, who amount to 14,000 since the start of the year.

The reception center in the southern island of Lampedusa again reached its bursting point at the start of this month. The center at Pozzallo in southern Sicily reached a similar point, and migrants began leaving the center.

Italian authorities are now testing all migrants who arrive on its shores for coronavirus and have deployed ships off the coast of Sicily and Calabria, where migrants can isolate. After their 14-day quarantine, the migrants will move to a variety of reception centers across Italy.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/europe/italy-resumes-migrant-deportations

[Disclaimer]

The post Italy Resumes Migrant Deportations first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

EU-Italy delegation in Tunisia to discuss slowing migration

AP via Arab News — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 22:32:38 +0000

Tunisian Interior and Prime Minister-designate Hichem Mechichi, right, greets Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio at Tunis Carthage airport in Tunis, Monday. (AP)

Talks to focus on broader European aid to fight the poverty and joblessness that fuels it

TUNIS: Top Italian and European Union officials are holding talks in Tunisia on Monday to try to stem the growing numbers of migrants crossing from the North African country to Europe.

Tunisia’s president, whose young democracy is struggling economically, said he wants the talks to focus not only on security measures to curb migration but also on broader European aid to fight the poverty and joblessness that fuels it.

The number of migrants leaving Tunisia has grown as much as fivefold this year compared to last year, for a total of about 5,700 people, according to estimates from the Tunisian Forum of Economic and Social Rights, an aid group following migration flows.

More migrants landing in Italy now came from Tunisia than departed from neighboring lawless Libya, according to Italian government figures released Saturday. A total of 16,347 migrants reached Italian shores over the past year, a 149 percent increase compared to the previous 12-month period, but still a number much lower than in several other recent years.

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, and the EU’s commissioner for neighboring countries Oliver Varhelyi were scheduled to meet Monday with Tunisian President Kais Saied and other top Tunisian officials.

Lamorgese, who visited Tunisia just two weeks ago for similar talks, said the trip is aimed at boosting Europe-wide solidarity with Tunisia.

Tunisia’s leader said he wants to broaden the migration discussion with Italy to make it more European, according to the official news agency TAP.

“Now is the time to act together to contain the (migratory) pressure and tackle the root causes … to help change the perception of young people of their reality and of their country and give them hope for a better life in their own country, rather than venturing into an unknown future,” Saied said in a statement.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The number of migrants leaving Tunisia has grown as much as fivefold this year compared to last year, for a total of about 5,700 people.

• Tunisia’s unemployment rate stood at 15 percent before the coronavirus pandemic and has since climbed to 21 percent.

Tunisia’s unemployment rate stood at 15 percent before the coronavirus pandemic and has since climbed to 21 percent. The country has struggled to restore prosperity since protesters overthrew a longtime autocrat in 2011, unleashing Arab Spring uprisings around the world.

The Italian and EU delegation is also expected to visit the Bardo Museum in Tunis, to honor victims of a 2015 extremist attack there that killed 21 people of various nationalities. The attack on one of the country’s prime tourist sites damaged Tunisia’s tourism industry.

Meanwhile, in North Macedonia, a major transit point for migrants entering the EU, police said Monday a car carrying a dozen migrants from Syria crashed into a stationary police truck, killing two of the car passengers and injuring the other 10 as well as a police officer.

Police said the accident occurred Sunday night near the town of Radovis, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) southeast of the capital Skopje.

The Greek border with North Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But trafficking networks remain active, ferrying migrants who make their way from Turkey into Greece and then attempt to head north to more prosperous European countries.

Police said that in July alone they had detained a total of 567 migrants attempting to illegally transit North Macedonia.

Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721086/middle-east

[Disclaimer]

The post EU-Italy delegation in Tunisia to discuss slowing migration first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

‘Pack your bags’: new Italian gov’t pledges mass migrant deportation

Nicole Winfield — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 18:56:00 +0000

Rome: Italy’s new populist leaders commemorated the founding of the Italian republic by attending a pomp-filled military parade Saturday – and then promised to get to work creating jobs and expelling migrants.

“The free ride is over,” League leader Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new interior minister, warned migrants at a rally in northern Italy. “It’s time to pack your bags.”

The Frecce Tricolori Italian Air Force acrobatic squad flies over the monument to the unknown soldier on the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the Italian Republic in Rome. Photo: AP

The pledge of mass deportations to come was a reminder that Italy has a staunchly anti-immigrant, right-wing party in its governing coalition – and that the European Union will face a whole new partner governing its fourth-largest economy.

Earlier, Salvini joined Premier Giuseppe Conte and the rest of the newly sworn- in Cabinet to view the Republic Day parade. Italy’s aeronautic acrobatic squad flew low and loud over downtown Rome trailing smoke in the red, white and green of the Italian flag.

The national pride on display is a feature of every Republic Day, but it took on a particular significance this year after Italy on Friday ended three months of political and financial turmoil and swore in a government whose populist and eurosceptic leanings have alarmed Europe.

Conte, a law professor plucked from relative obscurity to head an unlikely governing alliance of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and League, said the celebrations on Saturday transcended all the tensions of recent days.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is greeted by citizens on during celebrations for Italy’s Republic Day. Photo: AP

“It’s the celebration for all of us, of our republic,” he said.

Conte’s Cabinet was sworn in after a last-minute deal averted the threat of a new election that could have turned into a referendum on whether Italy stayed with the shared European euro currency. The political stability relieved financial markets on Friday but Italy’s European neighbours continued to express concerns about the eurosceptic bent and the heavy spending agenda of Italy’s new government.

“Italy is destroying itself – and dragging down Europe with it,” read the headline of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, the cover of which featured a forkful of spaghetti with one dangling strand tied up as a noose.

While Spiegel is known for such provocations, another Spiegel article last week drew an official protest from Italy’s ambassador to Germany.

The Frecce Tricolori Italian Air Force acrobatic squad flies over Rome’s skyline on the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of founding of the Italian Republic in 1946. Photo: AP

On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned Conte and invited him to visit soon. Merkel’s office said both leaders emphasised the importance of continued close bilateral cooperation.

Conte has so far left policy specifics to the drivers of his improbable rise, his two deputies: Salvini and 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio.

Di Maio, the new economic development minister, reported for work after the parade to his ministry, which would have otherwise been closed for the holiday.

“Starting today, we get to work to create work,” Di Maio said in a Facebook video giving Italians a tour of the empty ministry. Di Maio is also the minister for labor, a combination he said made sense since the two ministries must work together.

Leader of the League party, Matteo Salvini, right, stands by Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five-Star movement, prior to the swearing-in ceremony for Italy’s new government at Rome’s Quirinale Presidential Palace on Friday. Photo: AP

Offering the new government cautious support was Italy’s small, far-right neo-fascist CasaPound party, which held its own Republic Day commemoration on Saturday. Banners featured images of a crossed-out EU flag and “(hash)exIT” written underneath, a reference to calls for Italy to leave the 28-nation bloc.

The 5-Star-League agenda has no such plans, but Conte made clear he was irked by comments this week by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who said Italy had to stop blaming the EU for its problems and must take responsibility to address the poverty in southern Italy.

“That means more work, less corruption. Seriousness,” Juncker said in comments his spokeswoman later said he regretted.

In an unscripted blast from the parade route, Conte insisted Italy wasn’t alone in facing cases of corruption and declared that “we all have to work for legality.”

Conte’s government faces mandatory confidence votes next week in parliament, where the two governing parties have a slim majority.

Republic Day commemorates the day, June 2, 1946, when Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy in favor of a republic, Italy’s first.

The political upheaval that has created western Europe’s first populist government this week has been dubbed the start of Italy’s Third Republic.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/pack-your-bags-new-italian-gov-t-pledges-mass-migrant-deportation-20180603-p4zj5n.html

[Disclaimer]

The post ‘Pack your bags’: new Italian gov’t pledges mass migrant deportation first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Italy’s New Populist Government Pledges to Deport 500,000 Migrants

Warren Mass — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 21:20:20 +0000

Italy’s new populist government is expected to deport 500,000 immigrants from the country. Giuseppe Conte, who became Prime Minister on June 1, heads a coalition between the Five Star Movement and Lega parties. Conte’s cabinet, comprised of chiefs of anti-establishment parties, is the first populist government in Western Europe. The leader of Lega (Italian for “League”), Matteo Salvini, is to be interior minister, while Five Star head Luigi Di Maio will head a new ministry combining the previous departments of industry and labor. Both Salvini and Di Maio will also be deputy prime ministers.

On June 2, Salvini joined Conte and the rest of the new cabinet to view Italy’s annual Republic Day parade. Afterwards, Salvini warned migrants at a rally in northern Italy: “The free ride is over. It’s time to pack your bags.”

A report in al Jazeera on June 4 noted that while visiting Pozzallo — a town on the south coast of Sicily that is one of the main arrival points for refugees — Salvini said that Sicily will no longer be what he described as “Europe’s refugee camp.”

A recent report in Britain’s Express described the expected plans of Italy’s new government as an act of defiance against the European Union, whose policies require migrants to be dealt with by the first country where they arrive.

In addition to their commitment to deport as many as 500,000 migrants, the governing coalition’s manifesto also calls for the renegotiation of various EU treaties, including the Stability and Growth Pact, which sets a tough budget deficit limit of three percent of each nation’s GDP.

The parties to which the new cabinet ministers belong also seek the cancellation of €250 billion in Italian government debt by the European Central Bank, as well as a revision of Italy’s contribution to the EU budget.

The Express cited Salvini’s statement that the deportation of illegal migrants was “a priority,” and his pledge to rid the country of what he called “delinquents.”

Refugee Nightmare 2.0 — the EU’s 2nd Migration Tsunami Has Begun

Hundreds Demonstrate in Berlin Against Merkel’s Immigration Policies

Germany Changes Policy and Halts Massive Influx of Middle Eastern Refugees

Hungary’s Orban: “Obvious Connection” Between Illegal Migration and Terrorism

Trump and Clinton Talk About Nice, France Attack in TV Interviews

German, Italian Intelligence: Terror Attacks Planned This Summer at European Resorts

EU Report: “Terrorist Threat” Facing Europe Amid Flood of Illegals

Flood of Refugees From Syrian Civil War Challenges Europe

Hungary’s Orban Says Europeans Must Defend Their Borders

The Real Refugee Problem — and How to Solve It

Source: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/29206-italys-new-populist-government-pledges-to-deport-500-000-migrants

[Disclaimer]

The post Italy’s New Populist Government Pledges to Deport 500,000 Migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.