Huge surge in Italy migrant arrivals despite PM Meloni’s ‘naval blockade’ pledge
Migrant arrivals in Italy have increased by more than 50% since far-right premier Giorgia Meloni took office at the end last October, official statistics show, contradicting claims made by her government.
On Monday, interior minister Matteo Piatendosi appeared on an Italian TV show and claimed the “curve [of boat arrivals] had declined” compared to 2022.
But statistics published by the interior ministry and reviewed by Euronews show that migrant arrivals by boat have been considerably higher since Meloni took office compared to the same period the previous year.
The new PM’s first two full months in office — November and December — saw almost 20,000 migrants arrive by boat: a sharp rise from the same months the year before when there were 12,600 migrant landings.
The upsurge in arrivals by boat in the first ten days of 2023 has been even more dramatic: 3,709 so far this year compared to just 378 during the same time period in 2022, marking an 881% increase.
Euronews reached out to the interior ministry for comment, but they did not yet respond.
Although the Italian right has often pointed the finger to the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in helping migrants land on Italian soil, official studies would suggest their role has diminished over the past decade.
“From October [2022], NGOs have rescued less than 10% of migrants who’ve reached Italy,” said Matteo Villa, a researcher at the ISPI think tank, who spoke with HuffPost Italia. “In 2016, nearly 45% of migrants who arrived in Italy had been helped by an NGO.”
Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party emerged triumphant in last September’s snap general election, leading a campaign which promised to curb boat arrivals and take a hard-line stance on illegal immigration.
In November, the new government triggered a heated feud with France after a charity-run rescue ship with more than 200 passengers was turned away, later docking at the French port of Toulon.
One of Meloni’s main — and most controversial — pledges was to establish a “naval blockade” in the Mediterranean, to halt migrants from fleeing to Italy.
Critics decried the right-wing leader’s proposals as unfeasible and in contravention of international law — accusations she has dismissed, defending her policy on the grounds of wanting to crack down on human traffickers.
“[We] want to stop illegal departures, finally breaking the chain of human trafficking in the Mediterranean,” Meloni stated in her maiden speech to the lower house of parliament last October.
