The French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanen announced today that he is traveling to Rome “in the afternoon” in a message of “toughness” on irregular migrants crossing the Mediterranean, following last week’s influx of migrants to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Darmanen was due to meet with his Italian counterpart Matteo Piandedosi, according to his entourage.

“Following the request of the president (Emmanuel Macron), I am going to Rome this afternoon,” Darmanen told Europe1/Cnews media, explaining that France mainly wants to “help (Italy) guard its (external) borders.” , which are the first gateway to Europe from North Africa.

From Monday to Wednesday last week, some 8,500 people, more than the entire population of Lampedusa, arrived on the island on 199 boats, according to the UN migration agency.

This situation has created major problems for the island’s reception capacity, has caused a political shock in Italy and has brought back the thorny issue of European solidarity in matters of relocation of asylum seekers to support the countries that are at the forefront of these arrivals.

“It cannot exist as a message to the persons who come to our (European) soil that they will be accepted no matter what,” underlined Gerald Darmanen, who wants to send a message of “austerity” to Rome.

“We have to implement the European rules,” he added. “If there are asylum seekers who are entitled to asylum, who are being punished for political reasons, they are obviously refugees. And in this case, France (…) as it has always done, can welcome these persons”.

But in “60% of cases, they come from countries like Ivory Coast, Guinea, Gambia”, where “there is no humanitarian issue”.

“To protect the borders”

“What we want to say to our Italian friends, who I believe completely agree with us, is that we have to protect the external borders of the European Union and above all to immediately examine the requests for asylum and, when they are not entitled to it, to send them back to their country,” he said.

It is a message of appeasement to the Italian government, whose head Giorgia Meloni yesterday, Sunday, accused her European partners of not showing solidarity with Italy, which has welcomed almost 130,000 people on its soil since the beginning of the year, almost twice as much compared to the same period in 2022.

Gerald Darmanen is going to go to Rome, but not to Lampedusa, as did the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who presented an emergency plan there yesterday, Sunday, the minister’s entourage clarified.