We will put an end to the immigration ‘business’, warns Italy’s new PM

Italy’s newly sworn-in prime minister has promised to put an end to the immigration ‘business’ after making his first address to parliament.

Giuseppe Conte, who leads a new anti-EU coalition of Populist and far right parties, made the comments while seeking a confidence vote in the upper house Senate.

In a wide ranging speech, he vowed to ‘put an end to the immigration “business” which has grown out of control under the guise of solidarity’.

It comes as Italy’s new anti-EU coalition prepared to flex its muscles for the first time with its hard line interior minister opposing asylum seeker reforms in Brussels.

European ministers are meeting to try to break a two-year deadlock over an overhaul of the so-called Dublin rules to create a permanent mechanism to deal with migrants in the event of a new emergency. 

Italy’s newly sworn-in prime minister Giuseppe Conte (pictured) has promised to put an end to the immigration ‘business’ after making his first address to parliament

Italy's new anti-EU coalition is set to flex its muscles for the first time today with a hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini (pictured yesterday) opposing asylum seeker reforms in Brussels

Italy’s new anti-EU coalition is set to flex its muscles for the first time today with a hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini (pictured yesterday) opposing asylum seeker reforms in Brussels

Under existing rules, countries where migrants first arrive are required to process asylum requests. Italy, Greece and Spain are the main entry points to Europe.

But ministers will today hear Bulgaria’s new compromise proposals on how to close an east-west rift over reforms before a June 28-29 summit in Brussels.

Yesterday, Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini denounced the draft reforms and said his delegation would ‘say no’ insisting it would ‘penalise Italy and other Mediterranean countries in favor of the countries of the North and East Europe.’

‘Italy and Sicily cannot be Europe’s refugee camp,’ new hardline interior minister Salvini said Sunday in Sicily’s port of Pozzallo, a migrant landing point.

The reforms, he said, condemn Italy and other Mediterranean countries to continue bearing the burden of an unprecedented migration crisis for the 28-nation bloc, which peaked in 2015.  

EU leaders in December set an end-of-June deadline for an overhaul of the Dublin rules.

In a weekend interview, German Chancellor Angela Merkel thought it likely that it ‘will take several more weeks’ to seal a deal, without excluding one at the summit.

Addressing the new Italian government, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the EU ‘will only manage to settle the issue by working together,’ on protecting borders and agreeing on asylum rules. 

EU cooperation deals with Turkey and Libya, the main transit countries, have helped to slow, at least for now, the flow of migrants to Europe since 2015.

But the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, warns asylum reform is all the more pressing because the crisis could flare anew.

In a weekend interview, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured yesterday with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) thought it likely that it 'will take several more weeks' to seal a deal, without excluding one at the summit

In a weekend interview, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured yesterday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) thought it likely that it ‘will take several more weeks’ to seal a deal, without excluding one at the summit

'Italy and Sicily cannot be Europe's refugee camp,' new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday in Sicily's port of Pozzallo, a migrant landing point

‘Italy and Sicily cannot be Europe’s refugee camp,’ new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday in Sicily’s port of Pozzallo, a migrant landing point

Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have either refused outright or resisted taking in refugees since the Commission first pushed through temporary quotas in 2015 as a way to ease the burden on frontline states Italy and Greece. 

The summer of that year saw a surge in mass drownings in the Mediterranean as Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II peaked with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Under an emergency plan, EU member countries agreed to relocate to other parts of the bloc 160,000 Syrians and other refugees from Italy and Greece within two years.

Only 34,690 people have been relocated as most people made their own way to Germany and other wealthy northern countries amid the chaotic EU response to the crisis.

According to documents seen by AFP, Bulgaria calls for ‘alleviating (the) burden from the front-line’ states like Italy and ‘curbing secondary movements’ of asylum seekers who land in one EU country and travel to another.

More than 50 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean on Sunday, the majority off the coasts of Tunisia and Turkey. The Tunisian coastguard is pictured on patrol off the northern town of Bizerte in May

More than 50 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean on Sunday, the majority off the coasts of Tunisia and Turkey. The Tunisian coastguard is pictured on patrol off the northern town of Bizerte in May

Eastern countries place a priority on stopping secondary movements, which caused so much chaos in recent years that countries in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone re-established border checks.

In a nod to Rome and Athens, the Bulgarian proposals call for the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers, but only as a last resort.

At the outset of a crisis, financial and other support are supposed to kick in automatically under the plan.

EU capitals like Budapest, which has spearheaded opposition to Muslim and other migrants, have stood firm against mandatory relocation.

As a further sop to the eastern countries, people will be relocated only in exceptional cases and member states will have the ‘flexibility’ to reduce some of the numbers allotted to them.

Under the proposal, front-line states face increased ‘responsibility’ to register arrivals.

It would also speed up procedures to determine which countries must process genuine asylum seekers or expel those who are not.

The Bulgarian proposals amount to a ‘good starting point for a compromise’ among member states, a diplomatic source said.

‘But it will probably not budge the lines’ dividing the member states for the last few months, according to the source. 

 



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