Promises of 1.7 billion won to two NGOs supporting refugees
Far-right Meloni “The decision was made without coordination with 獨. It’s surprising.”
Lampedusa at the center of the ‘immigration crisis’…伊, calling for a ‘structural solution’
Foreign media reported on the 25th (local time) that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sent a letter protesting the German government’s attempt to provide funds to refugee support organizations.
According to the Guardian and Deutsche Welle (DW), far-right Prime Minister Meloni sent a letter to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last weekend protesting the German government’s plan to support refugee-related non-governmental organization (NGO) groups operating in Italy.
“I am surprised that the German government has decided, without coordination with the Italian government, to provide significant funding to NGOs that accept illegal immigrants on Italian territory and rescue them in the Mediterranean,” Meloni wrote in the letter.
Prime Minister Meloni called for focusing on providing ‘structural solutions’ instead of funding NGOs.
He demanded, “Efforts, including funding, from European Union (EU) countries interested in providing concrete support to Italy should rather focus on building structural solutions to the migration phenomenon.” At the same time, he cited the EU program of cooperation with transit countries such as Tunisia as one of the options.
The letter was sent on the 23rd, but the Italian government disclosed this fact to the media on the 25th.
This follows the German government’s decision to provide funding to two NGOs related to immigration.
One is ‘San Tegidio’, a Catholic charity organization that mainly helps refugees arriving in Italian territory, and the other is ‘SOS Humanity’, a German NGO that conducts refugee search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean. The German government decided to give about 400,000 euros (about 570 million won) to Sant’Egidio and about 800,000 euros (about 1.14 billion won) to SOS Humanity.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Rescuing people at sea is a legal, humanitarian and moral obligation.”
Italy is once again at the center of Europe’s immigration crisis after more than 11,000 migrants arrived in the small southernmost island of Lampedusa in just one week. This island, which is said to have about 6,000 residents, saw 133,000 people arrive this year alone. This figure is double that of the same period last year (about 70,000 people). They mainly come from North African countries such as Libya and Tunisia.
Far-right Prime Minister Meloni is pursuing a hardline immigration policy, saying he will prevent Italy from becoming a ‘refugee camp in Europe.’
Last week, it approved new measures to increase the length of detention in detention centers before deportation to up to 18 months and build more refugee camps. In addition, asylum seekers were required to post a deposit worth 5,000 euros (about 7 million won) to avoid being detained during the waiting period. DW reported that the Italian government also tried to block NGO ships rescuing migrants from docking.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.