The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, showed on Friday September 15 his concern about the migration situation on Lampedusa, a small Italian island which has been facing record arrivals of migrants via the Mediterranean in recent days. More than 7,000 people from North Africa landed on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lampedusa, one of the main gateways to Europe, the equivalent of the local population on this island, which has since declared itself in a state of emergency.
Gérald Darmanin convened a meeting Friday afternoon “on the Italian migration situation, following the events that occurred in Lampedusa,” his ministry said. This “situation update” must bring together the relevant services of the police, gendarmerie, immigration and internal intelligence, as well as the prefects of Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-Maritimes, these the last two departments bordering Italy.
The Minister of the Interior must also “exchange” during the day “with his German and Italian counterparts”, it was emphasized on Friday at Place Beauvau, where a new meeting will take place on Saturday morning on the subject.
The Interior Ministry has not indicated, at this stage, whether France plans to align itself with the decision of Germany, which announced on Wednesday to suspend the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from Italy, provided for by the European agreements, due to “strong migratory pressure” and Rome’s refusal to apply these same agreements.
In Lampedusa, the reception center is overwhelmed
In Lampedusa, the reception center intended to house fewer than 400 people is overwhelmed, with men, women and children forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic beds, many wrapped in survival blankets. More than 5,000 people landed on Italian shores on Tuesday, almost exclusively on Lampedusa, and nearly 3,000 on Wednesday, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. An “absolute record”, according to Matteo Villa, of the ISPI think tank.
During a trip to Menton (Alpes-Maritimes) on Tuesday, Gérald Darmanin announced reinforcements in the fight against irregular immigration at the Italian border, where France is seeing “a 100% increase in flows”, he said. said.
The RN asks Macron not to welcome “a single migrant”
The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, asked Emmanuel Macron on Friday to make a commitment not to welcome “a single migrant” from the island of Lampedusa. “Emmanuel Macron must solemnly make this commitment: France will not welcome a single migrant from the concerted Lampedusa operation,” declared the head of the far-right party’s list for the June 2024 European elections on X ( formerly Twitter). “For him who said he wanted to “significantly reduce” immigration, this is the moment of truth. Firmness or helplessness? »
Present in Lampedusa, the head of the Reconquest list! (far right) Marion Maréchal assured for her part on Friday on BFM-TV that she wanted to “provide support to the Italian people [and] to the Italian government which is abandoned by the European Union, also abandoned by France, and which finds itself alone to manage this situation even though the Italian borders are not only the borders of Italy, they are the borders of the whole of Europe”.
At Les Républicains (LR), MEP François-Xavier Bellamy criticized, also on BFM-TV, a European policy that is “bankrupt on the migration issue, because European law has for a long time disarmed our States in their capacity, their desire to control their borders.”
