Issues like migration "transcend national borders and require creative Europe-wide solutions" said Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of Thursday’s (October 5) European Political Community Summit (EPC) in Granada, Spain.

Talks about EU enlargement, defense, artificial intelligence, energy security and the climate emergency are all on the agenda. Migration was not originally scheduled to be one of the main focus points -- until Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reached out to Sunak for help. The two are now scheduled to chair a meeting together.

"Italy is anything but isolated," commented Meloni as she arrived in Granada, reported the left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica. The Italian leader was referring to the recent agreements announced by EU diplomats on the European migration pact. Meloni said she thought Europe could "do even better" on the issue.

Meloni: Europe's approach to migration 'evolving'

Meloni said she felt Europe's approach to migration was "evolving and becoming more pragmatic."

The two leaders are expected to further tackle this approach during their joint meeting at the two-day summit. Migration is an important theme for both -- pledges to control it formed part of the election promises that brought their parties to power.

During the meeting, the two leaders are expected to raise the need for more coordination between the EU and the UK, according to the Guardian. This is not the first time the two leaders have agreed to join forces on migration.

The EPC, first introduced last year, is the brainchild of France’s President Emmanuel Macron. It includes both EU and non-EU leaders from the Balkan states and Turkey.

Italy and the UK's 'Strategic Migration Partnership'

In light of reported meetings and visits to each other’s countries, the press has been full of speculation that Italy and the UK will announce some kind of special "deal" on migration. In April, Meloni and Sunak signed a memorandum of understanding called the "Strategic Migration Partnership."

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported in July that diplomats and senior officials from both countries met after the signing of that memorandum in June and July in order to strike some kind of deal. Both countries hope to crack down on the numbers of small boats arriving on their shores.

Many of the migrants who arrive over the central Mediterranean route to Italy eventually make their way out of the country and through France with hopes to cross the Channel to Britain.

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party has been holding its own conference this week in Manchester. It is expected to be the last meeting ahead of expected elections next year, which the issue of migration is anticipated to play a role in.

Sunak: Migration 'immoral and unsustainable'

Ahead of the Spanish meeting, Sunak told journalists that "levels of illegal migration to mainland Europe are the highest they have been in nearly a decade." He called the situation "both immoral and unsustainable", repeating that European leaders "cannot allow criminal gangs to decide who comes to Europe's shores."

In contrast to the other Conservative leaders who have been in charge since Britain exited the EU, Sunak has stepped up attempts to come into agreement with his European neighbors.

Post-Brexit, Britain has been unable to deport migrants crossing the Channel under the Dublin regulation, which provides that migrants should be sent back to the first country of EU entry to have their asylum claim heard there.

Following the Granada meeting, Sunak is also expected to announce more bilateral initiatives on migration with Belgium, Bulgaria and Serbia, the Guardian reports. These agreements are an attempt to "increase intelligence sharing and operational cooperation."

Conservatives announce a 20% reduction in Channel crossings

Britain is already part of a series of bilateral deals with France involving billions of euros and policing and monitoring cooperation along the French coasts.

French authorities say the deals have resulted in the prevention of tens of thousands of migrants from attempting the Channel crossing. Nevertheless, since the beginning of 2023, more than 25,330 migrants have reached Britain’s shores.

At the Conservative party conference, politicians were keen to emphasize that this is about a 20% reduction on the numbers of migrants who arrived in Britain without papers last year, but with hundreds of people arriving most days of the summer months of 2023, the government is struggling to show it has the situation under control.

Britain’s Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Suella Braverman compared migration in the 21st century at the conference to a "hurricane" saying that for "billions", moving from a poorer country to a richer country was "not just a dream today but an entirely realistic prospect."

Braverman, compares migration to a 'hurricane'

While Braverman, whose own parents migrated in the twentieth century to Britain, acknowledged that everyone had the right to dream about making their life better, Britain "could not possibly accommodate" all of those who might want to come from poorer countries.

"Even if we concreted over the countryside…and made all our cities one giant building site…it still would not be enough," she said.

According to Britain’s state broadcaster the BBC, Sunak will call on Thursday for "more coordinated European action" to tackle the rising numbers of migrants without papers arriving at the continent’s borders.

At the Conservative party conference the day before, Sunak in his keynote speech admitted that he had "never pretended that stopping the boats would be easy" but celebrated the reduction "by 20%" of arrivals this year. And this, he underlined, was "all while entry into Europe is up."

'Stop the boats'

Sunak celebrated his government's "new law" [the 'Illegal migration' law], which he said "will ensure that if you come here [to Britain] illegally, you will be removed." Sunak said he had faith that "once flights start going regularly to Rwanda, the boats [from across the Channel] will stop coming."

He pointed to the UK government’s returns agreement with Albania, signed soon after he took power, which he said had seen a fall in the numbers of Albanian nationals making it to Britain "by 90%." 

Sunak ended the part of his speech devoted to migration by emphasizing that he was sure that Britain "complies with all our international obligations, but know this: I will do whatever is necessary to stop the boats."

Stopping the boats would also be something Italy's right-wing government would dearly love to achieve. In the past, members of the government, including Meloni, have suggested that a naval blockade in the Mediterranean, as well as processing centers in North Africa, could help reduce the numbers of arrivals.

Meloni was also instrumental in the EU's recent agreement with Tunisia to try and reduce the numbers of migrants arriving in Italy.

However, to date, the numbers of arrivals have steadily increased since Meloni took power, not decreased.

Arrivals in Italy

According to the latest figures from Italy’s Interior Ministry, last updated on October 4, more than 135,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year. The majority of them are now setting off from Tunisia, although some are still leaving Libya in order to reach the EU.

Current figures show that the majority of those arriving are originally from Guinea, with nationals from Ivory Coast and Tunisia following close behind. Since the beginning of the year, 12,330 unaccompanied minors have also arrived on Italy’s shores.

The Italian government has declared several states of emergency since April to tackle the numbers arriving in the country and has repeatedly appealed to the EU to help relocate some of the arriving asylum seekers.