Italy has seen the number of illegal boat migrants landing on its shores double over last year, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has so far failed to live up to her hardline reputation.
Italian Interior Ministry figures released this week show that 89,158 illegals have crossed the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the year, compared to 41,435 during the same time period last year, representing an increase of 115 per cent.
While deportations were slightly up from last year, increasing from 2,000 to 2,561, they paled in comparison to the increase in people applying for asylum, with 72,460 making the request in the first seven months, an increase of 70.59 per cent over last year, Il Sore 24 reported.
In 2022, the main country of departure for boat migrants was Libya, however, this year, Tunisia has risen to the top spot. This does not mean that the majority of illegals actually hail from Tunisia, but rather that people from other countries have taken advantage of the deterioration in civil order in Tunisia and the growing people smuggler networks operating freely on the country’s coasts.
The sharp increase in illegal migration across the Mediterranean has once again seen authorities struggling to find room for migrants, with the reception centre on the island of Lampedusa, in particular, facing heavy overcrowding, the InfoMigrants website reports. At present, there are over 2,000 being housed in the centre, despite it only being built to hold a maximum of 450. It is believed that over a quarter of the entire population of the tiny island is now comprised of migrants.
Illegal immigration has had a substantial impact on social cohesion in Italy, with a report from 2018 finding that up to one in three crimes were being committed by foreign nationals and nearly half of violent sexual attacks being attributed to migrants, according to a separate report from 2020.
The people smuggler-operated trade across the Mediterranean has also come with dire consequences for migrants themselves, with an estimated 22,000 people having either died or gone missing in the sea since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
On Saturday, two Tunisians were reported to have died after their boat capsised, with one of the victims being a baby. In June, an estimated 500 migrants drowned as they attempted to sail to Italy from the coasts of Libya. This appalling suffering is the work of callous people smugglers sending migrants to sea aboard the least seaworthy craft possible to increase their profit margin, a business model permitted to flourish by Europe’s weak borders and weaker attitude to border-breaking immigrants once they arrive.
The continued waves of illegals pouring onto Italian shores is a significant blow for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who swept to power last year on the backs of promises to implement a populist agenda including putting an end to the boat migrant crisis. Before being elected, Meloni took a hardline stance on illegal immigration, even going so far as to suggest deploying a naval blockade to prevent the migrant boats from crossing the Mediterranean.
Yet, since coming into power, the prime minister has taken a more diplomatic approach to the crisis, seeking instead to partner with the dictatorial regimes in Tunisia and elsewhere in Africa to try to cut off the people smuggling operations where they operate. In July, Meloni led negotiations between the EU and the Islamist government of Kais Saied in Tunis, with the bloc agreeing to provide the financially struggling regime with a lifeline of 150 million euros in exchange for a crackdown on people smuggling gangs. It remains to be seen what impact the deal will have.