The Italian interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, made several stops in Calabria, a region that is increasingly exposed to migrant arrivals by sea and that is facing difficulties managing the arrival and shelter of the migrants.
Migration and security were on the top of the agenda of the Italian interior minister's visit to Calabria on May 30. Matteo Piantedosi's first stop was in Roccella Ionica, where approximately ten migrant arrivals took place recently, putting the town in a challenging situation as the flow of migrants is higher than its shelter capabilities.
The second leg was Africo Nuovo, in the area of Locride, where Piantedosi inaugurated the new Carabinieri barracks realized from an asset confiscated from the 'ndrangheta' mafia.
'Moving forward with containment policies'
In Roccella Piantedosi visited the port and met with local administrators, assuring them that "the first aid center and shelter will change for the better soon, as there are a number of planned interventions planned to boost the services that will be necessary at all times of need to make the shelter system operate more efficiently."
Piantedosi highlighted that the work of the government in Calabria "is aimed at making the migration phenomenon more manageable and sustainable even during its most critical phases."
Thereby, the shelter facilities will be improved while continuing to contrast irregular migration.
"The fact that we organize ourselves to shelter migrants does not mean that the government will not continue to implement its containment policies for migration in a set of coordinated actions with the countries the migrants originate from," specified the minister speaking to journalists.
'Good relations with Tunisia and Libya were launched'
Concerning arrivals and their number, Piantedosi appeared hopeful they might decrease: "At the government level we see some small positive signs also thanks to the good institutional relations with some States, such as Tunisia and Libya."
"This is why I am moderately hopeful that the so-called increasing curve of the number of migrant arrivals, which was rather high in 2022 and in the first months of 2023, may decrease," he continued.
"Therefore, from this point of view, thanks to all the work done in Tunisia and Libya and what we are doing in Italy, the migration issue could become more manageable. It is, in all cases a long job that we are building one step at a time, but that could produce positive effects in the future," he concluded.