«Support is our duty, but greater collaboration is needed»- Corriere.it

“Support for refugees and displaced persons is a duty that no one can shirk in full compliance with international law.” This is the position reaffirmed in Rome by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, during the Conference on migration and development, organized by the Presidency of the Council. From the discussion, the premier highlighted the need for a common commitment and more collaboration between the parties to counter the network of traffickers and contain the increasingly numerous landings.

The leaders of almost all the states of the southern shore of the enlarged Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Gulf, the EU countries of first port and some partners of the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, the heads of the European institutions and international financial institutions took part in the Conference.

In detail, therefore, they were present five heads of state (Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Mauritania, Libya, Cyprus), eight prime ministers (Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Malta, Jordan, Nigeria, Algeria, Lebanon), e eight ministers (Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey, Greece, Qatar, Bahrain), in addition to heads of the European institutions, various international organizations, as well as numerous United Nations agencies. Guest of honor the President of the Republic of Tunisia, Kais Saied.

Prime Minister Meloni opened the works: “What we are inaugurating today is a dialogue between equals, based on mutual respect, because it cannot be a competitive and conflictual relationship”, he began. For the Prime Minister, it is “a one-of-a-kind initiative in which I strongly believe, the beginning of a process, which we like to call the ‘Rome process’which must strengthen the dialogue between us, but also be open to other contributions”, since “our interests are much more convergent than we often recognize” and therefore a relationship based on “loyalty and frankness” is needed.

The leader of FdI then immediately focused on the issue ofmass illegal immigration that “hurts everyone, except the criminal organizations that get rich on the skin of the weakest”; therefore Italy and Europe «need immigration but we cannot give the signal that those who enter illegally will be rewarded. All of this – she added – concerns people, at the center of the migratory flows there are above all them: lives, hopes, fears, sufferings. Used, exploited by criminal organizations that follow the logic of profit”.

Hence the idea of ​​the premier of launch a «development fund whose management is decided through the contribution of those who use the resources». According to Meloni, in fact, without cooperation “any other effort will inevitably be in vain: wide-ranging collaboration to support development to address the root causes” of migrations. A fund which must be followed by the “partnership” with the countries of origin of the migrants which “must be equal, non-predatory, multidimensional, long-term”. It must be founded on «respect and not on a paternalistic approach, on solidarity, on respect for the sovereignty of each one, on the sharing of responsibilities and on the protection of legality because this is «the“the only serious way to strengthen our bond, to trust each other more and more and to promote the development and prosperity of our peoples”.

The Prime Minister did not spare a jab at her previous policy: «I know that for many of you in the past, Europe did not consider the problems of the rest of the world as its own and that, more generally, the West has sometimes given the impression of being more attentive to giving lessons than to helping. And it is probably also this mistrust that has sometimes made it difficult to move forward in solving strategic dossiers» such as «the migration dossier».

Finally, in her speech at the Farnesina, the Italian leader addressed an appeal to the participants in the meeting: «Each of us has in our eyes and in our memories the death of those who have not managed to overcome journeys of hope, the desperation of the survivors who have lost loved ones. So it is our duty to look after our states, of course, but it is also our duty to look after the fate of these people.”. The hope, consequently, for the prime minister is that of having started a common path based on “concrete objectives”.

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