The Nordio-Piantedosi plan to immediately repatriate Ivorians and Tunisians

ROME. The meeting between the two ministers, Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi, took place last Thursday. They met at the Viminale because there is an urgency that now affects the two ministers: clandestine immigration. From the Cutro decree and also from the Luxembourg European agreement of these days, in fact, derives a regulatory change that must be made concrete. The Meloni government’s idea is to succeed where everyone has failed so far, by seriously repatriating a quota of irregular migrants. And to get there, some crucial rules have changed. Asylum applications from applicants who come from countries considered relatively safe will be examined very quickly. In the meantime, however, the applicants will be locked up in some hotspots that will have barred gates and high walls. It will not be easy to get out of these hotspots. And if asylum seekers’ applications are rejected, it is even thought within weeks, people would have to be brought back as mere economic migrants. To succeed in the plan, however, it is necessary not only that the Ministry of the Interior quickly build four new hotspots in Sicily and Calabria, but that a congruous number of prefectural officials are then operational to examine the requests and an equally congruous number of justices of the peace that validate the forced expulsion.

In short, the Meloni government wants to show public opinion and Europe that something is happening under the direction of the right. And that the disembarked are not passively welcomed. Especially since the numbers continue to grow inexorably. For the circle to close, however, the country of origin must also be willing to take back its citizens. And here the mechanism will stall because there are very few readmission agreements stipulated between Italy and the countries from which the migrants leave. There is one that works quite well with Tunisia. One that works badly with Egypt. And one that has just been signed with the Ivory Coast, to be put to the test.

Looking at the most recent statistics, in fact, the Ivory Coast (with 7,291 landings since the beginning of the year) has become the first nationality of illegal immigrants arriving in Italy by sea. Followed by Guinea, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia. The strategy of the Meloni government is therefore easy to say: demonstrate that repatriations work, transform the negative record of the Ivory Coast into a positive record, and at that point push for other similar agreements with Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon , Guinea. All West African countries which, via the Tunisian route, increasingly enter Europe from the Italian coasts.

Obviously, the Viminale knows very well that a very poor country like the Ivory Coast will agree to cooperate with Italy only if it sees its convenience. And here we look at the legendary Mattei Plan, the Cooperation funds, agreements on agriculture, robust quotas of legal migration through the Flow Decree. Giorgia Meloni’s bet starts here. Matteo Salvini failed spectacularly when he promised half a million repatriations. It was a shot from him. But it is also true that Salvini was “only” an Interior Minister.