Top EU official visits Lampedusa!
Apparently under pressure to deliver on her campaign promise to end migration, Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Melloni has called for an EU naval mission to help stem migration.
Deutsche Welle reports that the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Lampedusa today with Melloni. They intend to see the situation of things as thousands of migrants arrived last week from Tunisia.
The Prime Minister said, “The migratory pressure Italy has been experiencing since the beginning of the year is unsustainable.”
Meloni wants migration to be discussed at the next meeting of the EU in October. She called for an EU mission to prevent boats from leaving Tunisia. But, it would violate international maritime law. This is because Italian or even EU ships are not allowed to operate in the 12-mile territorial zone off the Tunisian coast. Only Tunisia has jurisdiction over it. Boats carrying migrants are seaworthy, so EU naval vessels are not allowed to stop them.
Shipwrecked people on rescue boats must be assigned a safe port by the Italian rescue coordination center in Rome even if the port is far away in northern Italy.
