Italy and Britain want to lead the fight against “illegal immigration” in Europe, the two countries’ right-wing prime ministers, Georgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak, said in a joint article published today.

This article is yet another sign of the unity of the two governments, whose tough stance on immigration has drawn intense criticism from human rights organizations.

“Our views and our goals are the same, in fact we are two of the closest friends in Europe today,” Meloni and Sunac said in their article published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and the British Times, noting that they exchanged views on the war in Ukraine and defense cooperation.

“We are working together to stop the boats (including those carrying migrants) and we are asking others to act with the same sense of urgency,” the two prime ministers underlined.

Yesterday, Thursday, in Granada, Spain, on the sidelines of a wider meeting, a meeting on immigration was held between Meloni and Sunak, in which French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the president of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

At this meeting, “leaders pledged to take action to support each other to address the challenges of illegal immigration,” Meloni and Sunak point out in their article, adding: “We are proud that Italy and Britain are leading (of these efforts) jointly”.