ROME (AFP) – Italy hosted numerous national leaders in Rome on Sunday, at a conference aimed at extending an EU-backed deal with Tunisia to curb the arrival of migrants to European shores.
As presidents, premiers and ministers prepared to huddle for the talks, Pope Francis appealed to them to help the scores of people who try to enter Europe each year in search of a better life as they flee poverty and conflict.
“The Mediterranean can no longer be the theatre of death and inhumanity”, the pontiff said during his weekly Angelus prayer.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opened the talks shortly after 1100 GMT and was expected to hold a press conference after 1700 GMT, following the closed-door talks.
Meloni said talks would focus on illegal and legal immigration, refugee support and “the most important... wide cooperation to support development in Africa”.
During the 2022 election campaign that brought her to power, the far-right Meloni vowed to “stop the disembarkation” of migrants in Italy, which the government puts at nearly 80,000 coastal arrivals since January, compared to 33,000 in the same period last year.
But while the government has put obstacles in the path of humanitarian ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, it has failed to stop the departures themselves, which mostly originate in Tunisia and Libya.
Italy and the European Commission have sought to step up engagement with Tunisia, promising funding if it stems emigration from its territory.
Meloni has also sought to act as an intermediary between Tunisia -- cash-strapped and on the cusp of a major debt crisis -- and the International Monetary Fund, where a nearly $2 billion bailout package for the North African country has stalled amid an IMF demand for structural reforms.
Last week, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Tunisia that provides for 105 million euros ($117 million) in direct European aid to prevent the departure of migrant boats and combat smugglers.
The deal also provides for more illegal Tunisians to be repatriated, and for sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia to be sent back to their countries of origin.
A much larger EU package to Tunisia, a long-term loan of around 900 million euros proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in June, is conditional on approval of the IMF loan.
A senior European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the EU is hoping for similar partnerships with Egypt and Morocco.
According to the UN, more than 100,000 migrants arrived by sea to Europe -- most to Italy -- in the first six months of 2023, from the coasts of North Africa, Turkey and Lebanon.