Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is confident that he has the key to preventing migrant arrivals increasing because of his government's migration policy.

Italy's Interior Minister was speaking after he returned from the Trans-Mediterranean Migration forum held in Tripoli last week. At the conference, Italian ministers, including the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, met their counterparts from North African, Sahel and sub-Saharan African countries.

The conference was set up by the Government of National Unity in Libya, under Prime Minister Abdulhamir Dabaiba with an aim of "fighting illegal migration." As she arrived at the conference, Meloni told the Italian press, reported Rai, "illegal migrants are the enemies of legal ones." She explained that because Italy was dealing with "so many irregular migrants," they hadn't been able to offer more places to legal migrants.

Meloni added that for her government the Mediterranean region was a priority, and that meant that Italy and Libya needed to work together to make the region work for all concerned. She said that to make migration work for her country and all other Mediterranean countries, a multilateral approach is needed, where governments work "at 360 degrees."

Also read: Italy's Meloni in Libya to talk migration

Building partnerships

"The message launched by the Libyan government in reality only proves what we already know, something on which we have built our partnerships with North African countries: our migration problem is not opposed to what they are dealing with," said Piantedosi in an interview published on Sunday (July 21) by Rome daily Il Messaggero. He was commenting on Tripoli's claim that it is hosting three million migrants on its territory.

"Libya, like Tunisia, is experiencing a situation that can be absolutely compared to our worst seasons, with traffickers acting on their territory, favoring the passage of an unsustainable number of people and generating problems of [where they should stay]," he explained.

"For this reason, we have targeted our collaboration not only to make sure that the number of departures are contained, by providing training and equipment on the mainland or for rescue operations at sea, but in particular for assisted voluntary repatriations."

Also read: Italian Interior Minister answers questions about Mare Jonio case

'We offer alternatives to landings'

"We are already offering in Libya or Tunisia alternatives to migration projects, bringing back migrants to their countries of origin and helping them resettle thanks to tailor-made programs, logistical and financial assistance. In the first six months of 2024, there were nearly 8,000: 5,111 in Libya and 3,800 in Tunisia who took up the voluntary returns offer," explained Piantedosi.

"I believe the decrease in landings over the last few months is due to this changed approach more than 60 rescue operations at sea or actions against departures that we are also implementing," the minister told the newspaper.