Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday
told a Lower House debate ahead of this week's European Council
that the proposal on migrant repatriations presented by European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to open processing
centres for asylum seekers in non-EU countries was launched
thanks to Italy's plan for the fast-track processing of asylum
requests in Albania.
"Everyone must deal with the reality that the proposal on
repatriations presented by EU Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen talks about opening centres to process the
applications of migrants - this simply wouldn't have happened if
Italy hadn't had the courage to launch the protocol with
Albania", said Meloni.
The prime minister also referred to a recent ruling by Italy's
supreme Cassation Court saying the government was liable to pay
compensation to an asylum seeker who had been detained for too
long on a migrant-rescue coast guard vessel in August 2018, due
to a closed-ports policy promoted by then-interior minister
Matteo Salvini, saying that "when you enter illegally, you
already have failed to respect our rules and it is difficult to
explain to these people that we want our rules to be respected
if we are required to pay compensation to those entering Italy
illegally".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
