Italy: Repatriates about 850 migrants in 2022

Italian Interior minister Luciana Lamorgese said on Wednesday that about 850 migrants had been repatriated since the beginning of 2022.

Since the beginning of the year, about 850 migrants have been repatriated,announced Italy's Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese. This has been "made possible in part thanks to continual dialog [between

Italy and partner countries] resulting from agreements reached with the authorities in Tunisia, one of the countries from which the greatest numbers of migrants come," said Minister Lamorgese on Wednesday, April 13, during question time in the Chamber of Deputies in response to a question from the right-wing party Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy).

The minister went on to say, in the April 13 session, that in order to continue to stop migrant trafficking it was important that the European Union worked on creating "strategic partnerships with countries in North Africa, beginning with Libya and Tunisia." Lamorgese said she hoped that Italy, the EU and North African countries would continue to collobrate on the issue of border control and repatriation.

EU common policy 'the only way'

Lamorgese said that a single European policy on the issue of migration "is the only way to face problems of enormous complexity. A strategy to contain migration flows and to govern the phenomenon must look first and foremost at the European level since Italy is simply an external border of Europe," she said.

We have been calling on the EU for assistance to all the "first arrival" countries, explained Lamorgese. The minister said that the aim was to "arrive at solutions that are based on the principles of solidarity, with greater commitment from the [European border agency] Frontex and with the creation of concrete partnerships with countries from which migrants set off."