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Paris: In Italy illegal immigration by sea has witnessed a sharp decline this year owing to the strict anti-clandestine immigration policies of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing conservative government.
According to newly released official data that appeared in the local daily newspaper, Il Giornale this month, Rome recorded a shockingly sharp 62.4% drop in illegal arrivals in 2024, with 37,000 migrants landing in Italy as of August 12. Last year at the same time there were around 100,000 arrivals.
However, the challenge of illegal immigration for other countries of the Mediterranean like Greece and Spain has become more problematic. Spain saw an increase of 155% this year, and Greece 222%. While Italy is jubilant, it is clear that the problem of clandestine arrivals is not disappearing, but only moving towards more vulnerable shores.
The Canary Islands which are a part of Spain and are located only 100 km from the West African coast fall prey to the traffickers of illegal immigrants. Similarly, the Greek Islands are also easy targets for illegal arrivals from Northern Africa.
The Italian strategy to combat clandestine immigration seems to be bearing fruit. The main pillars of this strategy are deterrence and diplomacy which are deployed in a complementary manner to resolve the problem in the medium and long term.
Moreover, Italy is also using the intelligent tactic of "assisted repatriation” wherein migrants who voluntarily choose to return to their country of origin benefit from administrative, logistical or financial support. In the first six months of 2024, Italy organised more than 9,000 assisted repatriations to Tunisia and Libya while the number of assisted repatriations in all of 2023 to all countries of origin was only 3,200.
As for deterrence, Meloni’s immigration reforms reduced the asylum procedure, expedited voluntary and involuntary returns, permitted longer detention periods to prevent rejected asylum seekers from escaping and blocked several legal loopholes so that migrants and NGOs can no longer exploit the immigration system.
Italy is also building offshore asylum centres in Albania, across the Adriatic Sea. Since Albania is still not part of the EU, Italian officials can be even more efficient in filtering and expelling illegal migrants posing as asylum seekers and this will prevent their escape into other EU countries through the Schengen area.
When it comes to diplomacy, the Italian government’s game plan is to invest in key countries of origin and transit in Africa, these countries can in turn help fight criminal organisations involved in human trafficking. Italy will provide structural funds that contribute to the overall macroeconomic stability of these countries.
Italy’s impressive success in tackling clandestine arrivals has stirred the envy of its neighbours. Nearly seven months after the promulgation of the immigration law on 26 January 26, the French Home Ministry declared in a recent statement that there is better control of immigration on French with respect to measures of deportation as well as withdrawals of residence permits. For instance, measures to expel illegal foreigners increased by 28.8% in the first half of 2024.
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Among the 10,613 expulsions carried out during the first half of 2024, 2,514 foreigners were removed from French territory on the grounds of disruption to public order, compared to 1,956 in the first half of 2023.
