“The Mediterranean should be seen more as a community of destiny and a meeting ground for different national identities than as a site of death at the hands of human traffickers, as is all too frequently the case. Therefore, we need greater Europe, more Europe on the "southern front," as Italy has argued for a long time, and as it has argued especially in recent years. We cannot regulate alone a flow that has now attained unmanageable proportions". This was said by Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, during her address at the Rome Med - Mediterranean Dialogues, in Rome. "It is imperative - continues the prime minister - that Europe immediately adopt a framework of multilateral cooperation based on legal flows and an incisive preventative action to fight irregular flows, which must also include the Europeanization of return management as an integral component. With more than 94,000 arrivals since the beginning of this year, Italy – together with other countries of first entry – is carrying the biggest weight in safeguarding Europe's borders in the face of human trafficking in the Mediterranean.” “Recently, for the first time - says the prime - the Central Mediterranean route was recognized a priority in a document of the European Commission. I consider this a win. It had never occurred and probably never would have occurred if Italy had not raised two questions: respect for international legitimacy and the necessity to handle migration on a structural basis. All parties involved in this phenomenon—the nations of origin and transit as well as the countries of final destination—need to take immediate, decisive action. A shared commitment. From both, the nations of the European Union on the one hand, and the states of the southern coast of the Mediterranean on the other. For this reason, we urge the European Union to renew migratory cooperation with our partners in Africa and the Mediterranean, who must play a more active role in preventing and fighting human trafficking, so that long-standing agreements may be effectively implemented”.
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