Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the leaders of Mediterranean countries to Rome on Sunday to promote a new form of cooperation between immigration countries and emigration countries, modelled on the agreement signed by the EU with Tunisia to curb migrant arrivals.
Italy's far-right leader opened the conference by setting out the priorities of what she defined as "the Rome process."
"Fighting illegal immigration, managing legal immigration flows, supporting refugees, and above all, the most important thing, otherwise everything we do will be insufficient, broad cooperation to support the development of Africa, and particularly of the countries from which migrants come," she detailed.
Various NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, condemned the Meloni government for using the conference and the issue of migration to legitimise collaboration with authoritarian regimes.
Among the leaders present were the Presidents of Tunisia, Kais Saied, of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed ben Zayed, of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the High Commissioner of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, and delegates from the major international financial institutions.
EU-Tunisia partnership
According to Rome, some 80,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean and arrived on the peninsula's shores since the start of the year, compared with 33,000 over the same period last year, most of them leaving from the Tunisian coast.
Faced with this situation, Meloni and the European Commission have stepped up their "dialogue" with Tunisia in recent months, promising funding if the country undertakes to combat emigration from its territory.
Last week, Brussels and Rome signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tunisian president that provides for €105 million in European aid to prevent the departure of migrant boats and combat smugglers.
The agreement also provides for more illegal Tunisians to be returned to the EU, and for sub-Saharan African migrants to be returned from Tunisia to their countries of origin.
A senior European official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the EU wanted to negotiate similar partnerships with Egypt and Morocco.
NGOs, on the other hand, have condemned the move. Sea-Watch deplores the fact that "the EU and its member states continue to tighten their deadly policies of isolation," while Human Rights Watch believes that "Europe has learned nothing from its complicity in the atrocious abuses committed against migrants in Libya."
