Italian PM touts importance of national identity while asking for international help on migration

Speaking for the first time in front of theUnited Nations General Assemblyon Wednesday, Italian Prime MinisterGiorgiaMeloniurged its 193 member statesto "wage a global war" against smugglers andsaid Italy would not be turned into "Europe's refugee camp."

At the same time, she spoke of the human need for a national "identity."

The far-right leader of Italy's coalition government was elected last October on a platform promoting so-calledChristian European valuesand promising to defend Italy against European Union dictatesand"invasions" of migrants coming on boats to Italy from North Africa.

Since the start of the year, though, some 130,000 people have crossed on boats from North Africa to Italy double the number compared to the same period last year promptingMelonito turn to the EU and international community for help.

"Fighting criminal organizations should be a goal that unites us all," shetold the UN,referring to the smugglers who are ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean Ocean.

WATCH | Record number of migrants land on Italian island:

Record number of migrants overwhelm Italian island

1 year ago

Duration 1:14

This tiny Italian island isn't equipped to keep up with the thousands of migrants arriving from North Africa. An estimated 8,000 people have flooded Lampedusa in the past week, doubling the island's population and straining resources.

Observers sayMeloniis walking a fine line between extolling nationalism and identityon the one handand insisting on a multilateral,collective commitment against migratory flowson the other.

"She went to the UN trying to secure international support on the migration issue, because the discussion within the EU is at a stalemate," saidRaffeleMarchetti, an international politics professor at Rome'sLuissUniversity and author ofA Manual of Italian Politics, a textbook on the country's foreign policy.

European engagement is crucial on the migration issues, however, and for now,Melonihas stayed away from some of the strong-arm tactics and escalation used in the past,Marchettisaid.

Fighting off political challengers

European Union electionsarecoming upnext June. Delivery on either migration or the economy with billions in EU COVID-19 recoveryfunds flowing Italy's way will be crucial to Meloni's political survival.

"She could be challenged from the right within her own coalition," saidMarchetti."But also, a galaxy of other right-wing parties are already campaigning against her, saying she's too soft on migration."

In July,Meloniwas among the EU leaders who pushed hardest for a contentious deal on migration with Tunisia, where most of the boats crossing to Italy now leave from.

The Tunisian government has cracked down on human rights and freedom of speech. The country's economy isinfreefalldue todrought, corruptionand theglobalsurge in food prices.

The deal, similar to an earlier one with Libya, will injectthe equivalent of $215 millionCdninto the country's economyin exchange for Tunisia's Coast Guard stopping migrant boats from leaving.

Since the accord was signedin July,though, boat crossings to Italy have increased by 70 per cent.

Landing onLampedusa

Most arrive on the tiny southern Italian island ofLampedusa, whichMeloniandEuropean CommissionPresidentUrsulavonderLeyenvisited earlier this week.

Almost 10,000 migrants crammed into makeshift boats arrived the week before. The island has a small reception centre that sleeps 400, so thousands including women with babies and unaccompanied minors were forced to sleep on cots or cardboard on the street and beg for food.

While onLampedusa, the two leaders urged EUmember states to makegood on agreements to share the burden of people crossing to Italy, byvoluntarily takinginnew arrivals.

EU migrant-sharing schemes, which date back to 2015, have mostly failed.

GraldDarmanin,theinterior ministerof France, the destination for many of those arriving in Italy, said France would help indeporting people back to their countries of origin,but"will not welcome" people arriving inLampedusa, unless they were refugees.

France, along with Austria, has moved to tighten its borders with Italy.

MeloniandVonderLeyenalso vowedasylumseekers whose requests for refugee status were rejected would be swiftly deported.

'This just doesn't reflect reality'

On Monday,Meloni'sgovernment announced itwould increase its maximum detention period for migrantstothe limitof18 months something critics say is illegal and intensify the repatriation ofpeople whose asylum claims are rejected.

"This just doesn't reflect reality," said ArturoSalerni, president of the Italian Coalition for Freedom and Civil Rights.

He says keeping people in detention centres longer does not increase the chance their home country will agree to take them back, which is less than50 per centas it stands.

For those who fail to qualify for refugee status, repatriations "happen within weeks or don't happen at all,"Salernisaid. "So it makes no sense to hold people for longer in detention centres. It costs more and prolongs suffering and isolation. And then people are let out, still with no permit to be here, and have to fend for themselves in a legal limbo."

Along with the thousands who have made it to Italy this year, more than2,000 people haveperished in the central Mediterranean,according to the International Organization for Migration. That includestwobabies who died last week.

Oct. 3 marks the 10thanniversary of a shipwreck just off the coast ofLampedusathat claimed the lives of 368 people, leading to the launch of theEU'sfirst search-and-rescue naval mission, Mare Nostrum, which was cancelled a year later.

This weekend, Pope Francis will travel to Marseille, France, where he will meet with migrant rescuers and call for solidarity with those who risk their lives at sea to make it to Europe.