After a week-long lull in migrant arrivals from Africa due to bad weather, migrants are starting to arrive again on Italian shores and mainly on Lampedusa, the small Italian island located just 150 kilometers off the Tunisian coast.

A small group of Tunisians arrived today by boat, while seven migrant rescue ships are headed for the island, causing “concern” of the Italian Foreign Ministry.

The Red Cross took care of the 17 Tunisians, who were then taken to Sicily and mainland Italy.

The same time, seven aid ships, “some with the German flag, are heading for Lampedusa,” Antonio Tajani saidwho visited Berlin, in the newspaper La Repubblica.

“This seems strange, disturbing to me. On the same day that a proposal comes to the table (the compromise proposal on the asylum and migration agreement), all these ships are sent around Lampedusa.

Rome accuses Germany of funding aid ships that operate in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants. His German counterpart Analena Burbock yesterday defended the role of non-governmental organizations rescuing migrants trying to enter Europe through Italy.

“Rescuing a person from drowning at sea is a legal and European obligation,” he said.

The EU is divided on immigration

In mid-September, the massive disembarkation of thousands of migrants in Lampedusa over a few days forced the government of Georgia Meloni to request the intervention of the European Commission and the solidarity of the member countries of the European Union.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Lampedusa with Giorgia Meloni to announce a 10-point aid plan for Italy to speed up the processing of asylum applications.

Italy’s European partners, such as France, without explicitly stating that they are willing to accept some of the migrants, have expressed a willingness to extend a helping hand to Rome.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni, whose relations have been extremely strained over immigration since the far-right government took power in October 2022, held a series of talks and a tete-a-tete meeting this week in Rome. to show the rewarming of Franco-Italian relations.

However, European unity on the issue is not guaranteed. If Germany yesterday gave the green light to an important chapter of the reform of the asylum system of the 27, Italy, which has long called for the speeding up of the negotiations, took a turn expressing reservations, apparently indignant at the attitude of Berlin.

The leaders of the nine Mediterranean member countries of the European Union are meeting today in Malta to coordinate their positions, mainly on the subject of immigration.