The Council of Ministers of Italy declared a state of emergency for six months throughout the national territory “due to the exceptional increase in the flow of migrants arriving in the country along the Mediterranean routes,” the press service of the government’s Palace of Chigi said.
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At a government meeting on Tuesday, information provided by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi was considered, according to which, since the beginning of 2023, a sharp increase in migration flows has been registered in the Apennines. This led to a critical situation in a number of detention centers for illegal migrants, primarily on the island of Lampedusa. In the current situation, it was proposed to urgently take emergency measures in order to normalize the situation in this “hot spot”, where there are currently 1.8 thousand refugees, while the center is designed to receive 400 people.
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At the suggestion of the Minister for Civil Defense and Maritime Policy Nello Muzumechi, the Council of Ministers decided to declare a state of emergency throughout the national territory. Pending an accurate assessment of the real financial needs to resolve the current migration crisis, the Government has allocated 5 million euros from the National Emergency Fund for the implementation of the most urgent measures.
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On Tuesday morning, the news channel RaiNews24, citing data from the national Coast Guard, reported that about 3,000 migrants had arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean over the past three days.
The previous record in this area was set at the end of March, when, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 6.5 thousand refugees from Asia and Africa reached the Italian coast within five days. According to official data, this number of migrants was recorded in the Apennines in the first three months of 2022. Thus, since the beginning of this year, the migration flow has quadrupled. On Tuesday, the Italian Interior Ministry reported that as of April 11, more than 31,000 people had already arrived in the country by sea.
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The situation around migrants who daily arrive in the Apennines via the Mediterranean Sea has again become the center of internal political discussion in Italy after a ship with refugees sank on the night of February 26 during a storm in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Calabria. According to survivors, there were about 180 citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan on board. According to official figures, 91 people, including 35 minors, became victims of the shipwreck.
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At present, there is a discussion in the Senate of the republic regarding the provisions of the government decree, approved by the Council of Ministers shortly after this tragedy. This is about tightening immigration rules in order to curb the arrival of refugees in the Apennines.
At the same time, Italy is seeking a solidarity approach from the European Union to solving the migration problem, offering to organize a naval mission in the Mediterranean and actively contribute to the stabilization of the situation in the countries of North Africa, primarily in Tunisia and Libya. Prime Minister George Meloni, speaking recently in the House of Deputies of the national parliament, said that “Italy was left alone” in the rescue of migrants at sea.
