Meloni and Her Migrant Crackdown: A Sharp Right Turn in Under Three Months
On 3 October 2013, almost 300 migrants died after the boat that was carrying their dreams of a life in Europe capsized several hundred metres away from the shore in Libya. The incident sparked widespread calls for urgent reform to prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself. Yet, ten years later, little has changed. According to the International Organisation for Migration, since 2014, over 250,000 people have died or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
This is in part fuelled by right-wing governments, such as that of Italy, which implement harmful policies in an effort to curb migration.
Giorgia Meloni was sworn in as Italy’s Prime Minister on 22 October, 2022. As leader of Brothers of Italy, a political party with populist and neo-fascist roots, Meloni ran on a right-wing platform promising to drastically cut migration flows to Italy. In line with her promises, she has embraced a tougher stance against migrants immediately since entering office.
From late October into early November of that year, Meloni launched Italy into the spotlight when she refused entry to three ships chartered by NGOs carrying over 1,000 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean. The three ships, operated by Doctors Without Borders, SOS Mediterranee, and SOS Humanity and called Geo Barents, Ocean Viking, and Humanity 1, respectively, urged the Italian government to allow them to offload migrants amid worsening conditions on board the ships. The charities reported that people were forced to sleep on the floor, infection was rapidly spreading , and that water, food, and medical supplies were dwindling. After ignoring initial calls, the government eventually agreed to grant permission to one ship, Humanity 1, to offload sick or ‘vulnerable’ migrants. Authorities prevented migrants who were not deemed ‘vulnerable’ from getting off the ship.
Meloni’s government refused to allow any other ships in nearby waters to dock. By that time, some migrants had been on the ships for upwards of two weeks.
After being refused entry by Italy, the Ocean Viking, carrying over 200 people, headed to France, where it was allowed to dock in the port of Toulon. A diplomatic spat ensued between Italy and France. French officials accused Italy of neglecting its humanitarian obligations by refusing migrants entry and stated that they would delay the delivery of their promise to relocate migrants from Italy. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi meanwhile labelled the French attack on the Italian government as ‘incomprehensible,’ citing that Italy has taken in many more migrants than France.
Following its hostile exchange with France, Italy has shifted to more discreet means of curbing migration than denying charity ships entry to avoid international backlash. In December, Meloni’s government approved a new set of measures which would fine charity ship captains up to 50,000 euros and possibly impound their ship they breached the rules. Under these new measures, charity ships must head to their assigned port ‘without delay’ directly following a rescue. Although ships currently patrol the Mediterranean for several days and bring aboard different groups of migrants from separate rescues, this is prohibited under the new measure.
To make matters worse, the Italian government has recently begun to assign rescue ships to ports in northern Italy. This adds several days of travel, which is detrimental, as it holds back the ships from engaging in rescue operations for longer periods of time, adds to the already high cost of fuel and food, and has the potential to worsen already poor conditions of the migrants on board. In late January, Geo Barents was redirected to the northern port of La Spezia after rescuing nearly 70 migrants near Malta. The head of mission for Geo Barents, Juan Matias Gill, stated in response, ‘It is 100 hours of navigation from where we are at the moment… Compared to disembarking in Sicily, going all the way to La Spezia costs us 70,000 euros in fuel alone.’ Italian officials have claimed that this move is aimed at distributing the burden of migrants more evenly across Italy, as it is currently concentrated in the poorer southern regions. However, this move is not only a direct breach of international law, which dictates that charity ships should disembark migrants at the closest and safest port, but it is also inhumane. It has the potential to add dramatically to the number of people dying without assistance in the Mediterranean by forcing charities to halt unaffordable missions.
Hardening its positions against migration even further, Italy has increased cooperation with Libya, one of the countries from which migrants to Italy largely originate. On 2 February 2023, Italy’s Memorandum of Understanding on Migration with Libya was automatically renewed for three years. Under the Memorandum, Italy provides Libya with technical and financial support. In return, Libya facilitates the interception of migrants attempting to crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. On 28 February, Meloni signed a gas deal with Libya that granted the Libyan Coast Guard five ‘fully equipped boats.’ This is particularly dangerous as highlighted in a June 2022 report by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, which states that human rights abuses, including ‘murder, enforced disappearance, torture, enslavement, sexual violence, rape, and other inhumane acts’ are widespread for returned migrants. Italy is not only complicit, but also partly responsible for these human rights violations.
In recent months, Meloni and her rightist government have implemented a variety of hard-line policies in their attempt to dramatically reduce the number of migrants entering Italy illegally. Meloni has continually backed her actions. She has expressed that there must be a crackdown on rescue charities, as they facilitate the work of traffickers. According to Meloni, the current state of charity rescue operations only encourages migrants to cross the Mediterranean with traffickers, as they are aware that charity ships which intercept them will bring them to Europe. She also claims that if there are fewer charity ships operating, there will be fewer migration attempts and therefore also fewer deaths. The contrary is true, and deterrence arguments have been repeatedly shown to be false
Meloni has further argued that Italy has unfairly bore the burden of migrants, claiming that the burden should instead be placed on the flag nations of charity ships- Germany and Norway. Though Italian officials argue that they take in an unfair quantity of migrants, and admittedly they do take in a substantial amount of migrants coming by sea, other European countries such as Germany taken in larger amounts, especially considering the number of refugees it has welcomed throughout the war on Ukraine.
No matter the justifications given by Meloni and her government, Italy’s policies will result in a surge in migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. They are morally incorrect, as they pose a threat to human life. It is imperative that the Italian government reverse these policies and instead cooperate with the EU. At their summit from 9 to 10 of February, EU heads of state are scheduled to discuss migration and consider more effective means for border control in a region which is largely border-free. Within these discussions, it is crucial to treat migrants as human beings instead of using them as pawns in a political debate and to put an end to the targeting of humanitarian organisations. Italy must work alongside the EU to come up with alternative measures to effectively address the surge in migrants arriving on its shores.
Image Courtesy of Quirinale via Wikimedia, © 2022 some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
