Will Giorgia Meloni, With Her Thatcherite Resolve, Throw Keir Starmer a Life Raft on Small Boat Emergency?

If Sir Keir Starmer wants to escape the recent curse of making a sojourn at 10 Downing Street look more like an overnight stay at an Airbnb, he will be doing more in his meeting with Prime Minister Meloni on Monday than expressing admiration for the ancient wonders of Rome.Over the weekend, eight migrants died trying to cross the English Channel. According to the BBC, they were packed into a rubber boat with around 60 people on board, from countries including Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, and Iran. French authorities, meanwhile, said that on Friday and Saturday they rescued 200 refugees from the sea. Europe’s refugee crisis is spinning out of control in real time. Germany is taking matters into its hands, with the introduction today of expanded border controls to ease pressure on an overburdened asylum system that can no longer cope. In doing so, Berlin has just harpooned any notion that the EU could manage illegal immigration. While Brexit released Britain from the bureaucratic shackles of Brussels, it is still wrestling with a tide of migrants coming from a tired Europe — where Italy has been way ahead of Germany in facing the music.That is why today’s meeting between Mr. Starmer and Ms. Meloni will be about more than exchanging niceties. The Labor administration has already nixed the previous Conservative government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and to date Mr. Starmer has come up with no viable alternative. His language approximates that of Vice President Harris, who tends to focus (at least rhetorically) on the root causes of the refugee crisis without taking tangible steps to monitor border infiltrations. But Ms. Meloni is doing both. As the Sun has previously reported, illegal arrivals in 2024 in Italy to date have fallen by 65 percent compared to last year, with 40,138 migrants disembarking on Italian shores as of August 27 compared to 113,469 over the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, more than 22,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France so far this year, a slight increase compared to the same period in 2023. Several dozen people have perished, their flimsy boats no match for unpredictable seas.Despite their cooperation Paris and London have essentially batted the problem back and forth, but without adequate manpower on either side of the Channel. Meanwhile, since taking office in 2022, Ms. Meloni’s conservative government has inked deals with individual African countries to try to impede migrant departures from their shores, cracked down on traffickers and taken measures to deter people from setting off. She has also taken a tough line on the so-called humanitarian ships that aim to rescue — but may inadvertently encourage — migrant movements across the Mediterranean Sea. Will Sir Keir take an overdue cue from Rome? In addition to his meeting with Ms. Meloni, he will tour Italy’s national immigration crime coordination center with Britain’s newly appointed Border Security Commander, Martin Hewitt, in tow. So this is a working visit, and one can only surmise that the Italians somewhat relish showing London how it’s done. Indeed, while the Rwanda plan fizzled before Mr. Starmer’s government even gave it a chance, Italy has already successfully struck an agreement with Albania for asylum-seekers to be temporarily sent to that country. According to that deal, up to 36,000 migrants will be held in Albania instead of Italy each year. The Meloni administration’s efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration have not been without controversy. While Sir Keir has emphasized the need to dismantle smuggling networks, however, Ms. Meloni and her coalition stalwarts like deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini have prioritized taking action. It is possible that the brass-tacks approach has already had a positive impact on Germany. The rise of German anti-immigrant parties in recent regional elections led the centrist government of Chancellor Scholz to take more drastic steps like unilaterally suspending Schengen rules on free movement across land borders. His coalition, however, is not oblivious to Rome’s successes. Simply put, many in Europe are fed up, not only with migrant overflow and crime, but lack of action. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders is already calling for an opt-out option on immigration and asylum. In Poland, France, Greece, Hungary, and elsewhere, all eyes may be on Berlin, but Great Britain has a lot more in common with Italy — the refugees are coming not by land, but by sea. Signora Meloni may be magnanimous in offering Sir Keir a life raft of sorts, but also practical. Cooperation between London and Rome on one of the thorniest issues of the day is another poke in the eye of the place seemingly incapable of managing any of them: Brussels.

Will Giorgia Meloni, With Her Thatcherite Resolve, Throw Keir Starmer a Life Raft on Small Boat Emergency?

Will Giorgia Meloni, With Her Thatcherite Resolve, Throw Keir Starmer a Life Raft on Small Boat Emergency?

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