During his first trip to Italy since taking office British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the UK will seek to replicate Giorgia Meloni’s success in stemming the tide of illegal boat migrants, sparking a wave of criticism from leftist Labour Party lawmakers back in London.
In the wake of eight more migrants drowning to death attempting to illegally cross the English Channel from France, Prime Minister Starmer met with his counterpart in Rome to “study” the methods used by the conservative Meloni government, which have seen over a 60 per cent decrease in illegal migration to Italy over last year, broadcaster RAI reports.
“Italy has shown that we can. You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration, of source and to tackle the gangs,” Sir Keir said.
Meloni’s government has adopted a “360 strategy” to tackle illegal immigration, including brokering EU-level and bilateral deals with migrant hot spot countries such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt as well as cracking down on NGO migrant taxis, increasing restrictions on asylum seekers being allowed to work, and levying heavier penalties against people smugglers and migrant boat captains.
While the scheme has yet to come into action, Meloni also inked a deal with Albania to house asylum seekers while they await their claims to be processed rather than allowing them to remain in Italy during the interim. Although Prime Minister Starmer scrapped a similar agreement with Rwanda on his first day in office, the Labour Party leader is “very interested” in the Albania scheme, according to Meloni.
She said: “The model that the Italian government has imagined, of centres to process asylum requests under Italian and European jurisdiction in a foreign country, has not been tested. If it works, and I believe it will work, everyone understands that it will be a keystone for the element of deterrence.”
The meeting of the two leaders comes as over 1,000 illegals crossed the English Channel in small people smuggler-operated boats launched from the beaches of France over the weekend. French authorities reported Sunday that eight migrants lost their lives in the busy waterway attempting to reach Britain.
The latest crossings take the total of illegal arrivals by boat into the country to around 10,000 since Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party came into power in July and nearly 24,000 since the start of the year.
In addition to scrapping the Rwanda scheme, leaving hundreds of millions of British taxpayer investments behind, the new left-wing PM has also refused to enact a ‘push-back the boats’ approach as has been advocated by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and was successfully implemented in Australia under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who’s Operation Sovereign Borders all but eliminated illegal boat migration to the former British Dominion.
Starmer has instead said that his government will expand efforts to target and break up trafficking networks operating on both sides of the Channel. However, the PM’s interest in Italy’s Albania scheme and his reported desire to “study” from Premier Giorgia Meloni has ruffled feathers within his own party in Westminster.
Speaking to the left-wing Guardian newspaper, Labour MP Kim Johnson said of the meeting in Rome: “It is disturbing that Starmer is seeking to learn lessons from a neo-fascist government – particularly after the anti-refugee riots and far-right racist terrorism that swept Britain this summer.”
Another unnamed Labour MP said that “cosying up to Meloni is shameful… she is all about dehumanising and mistreating people fleeing war and persecution. This leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of many people in our party.”
