(Adnkronos) – Italy and Greece’s premiers Giorgia Meloni and Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday decried the “burden of unsustainable levels of irregular migration” to Europe and called on the European Union to implement tougher immigration and asylum rules agreed in late 2023.
“Italy and Greece, being both first-country-of-entry, bear the burden of unsustainable levels of irregular migration into Europe and share the same challenges,” the two leaders said in a joint statement after a bilateral summit in Rome.
“We can make progress only by working more closely together through a whole-of-EU response, the statement continued.
“The development of the external dimension is essential for success in tackling irregular migration in the long term. We will work together to ensure correct and balanced implementation of the new migration and asylum pact, adhering fully to the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility,” the statement went on.
Meloni and Mitsotakis also “look forward to developing innovative solutions to tackle irregular migration, such as the Italy-Albania agreement,” said the statement,
The statement referred to migrant processing centres which Italy built in Albania to house male asylum-seekers intercepted in international waters between Africa and Europe under a contested 2023 deal signed by Meloni and Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, which has stalled amid a raft of legal challenges. The hardline approach of offshore migrant processing hubs has however gained growing traction among EU states and the European Commission.
“We attach great relevance to the reinforcement of the concepts of Safe Country of Origin and Safe Third Country. We welcome the Commission’s proposal to revise the relevant legislative framework and we are committed to a swift approval of the newly presented proposal of the return regulation,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, we support a swift adoption of an EU list of safe countries of origin and safe third countries,” the statement added.
