VALLETTA: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is calling for a fundamental change in the European Union’s migration policy, saying that his country received little help even though it was at the forefront of receiving migrants from across the Mediterranean.
“Italy doesn’t need any more verbal signs, but of concrete deeds,” Conte said upon arrival at the EU summit in Brussels Thursday.
Italy’s proximity to North Africa has turned it into a key destination for migrant arrivals. Conte is insisting that burden be shared better across the EU. He wants to change an EU system currently in place which put the onus on any nation where the migrants first arrive.
Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has arrived at an EU summit with rhetorical guns blazing, describing the main issue of migration to Europe as an “invasion” that “should be stopped.”
Orban insists that beyond closing off borders, EU member states should also back those who have already arrived.
He says Thursday that “the people request two things. (The) first is, no migrants more in, so stop them. The second is, those who are in, should (be sent) back.”
He said both steps were necessary “to restore European democracy.”
“The invasion should be stopped and to stop the invasion means to have strong border,” Orban said on his way into the summit. A German humanitarian group that’s been heavily criticized by European governments for rescuing migrants off the coast of Libya says it had no other choice.
A representative of Mission Lifeline said Thursday the group’s ship received a distress call in the night of June 20-21 and found an inflatable boat full of people 19 nautical miles off Libya’s coast.
Marie Naass told reporters in Berlin that the captain was told by the marine coordination center in Rome to leave the rescue to Libya’s coast guard, but they never showed up.
Naass said the captain determined the migrants were in “acute danger” and picked them up. A second ship, 22 nautical miles off Libya’s coast, was also rescued.
She added that it was “a question of minutes, you have to decide quickly.”
Italy’s Conte urges EU migration policy change
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives ahead of a summit at EU headquarters in Brussels on June 24, 2018. - EU leaders headed to Brussels for emergency talks over migration as Italy's new populist cabinet turned away another rescue ship, vowing no longer to shoulder Europe's migrant burden. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP) (Photo credit should read JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images)