Under Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government, the Italian government promised to curb irregular migration. With Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, by her side, the Italian leader vowed to get tough. She passed measures extending the amount of time people can be held in deportation detention centres to 18 months and ordered the construction of new centres.
Meloni was the key protagonist in a deal signed in July 2023 between the EU and Tunisia that meant paying the north African country millions of euros to stop migrant boats from leaving, as well as to invest in businesses and education, all with the aim of deterring migration.
The policy bore little fruit in the early stages, but now the deal, along with another – first struck by Italy in 2017 – that equips and trains the Libyan coastguard to stop people leaving, is credited with reducing inflows.
This year, Meloni travelled to Tunisia and Libya to put pressure on their leaders to reinforce those pacts and curb irregular migration more dramatically.
Italy also made a deal with Albania under which men arriving on boats from north Africa would be taken to centres in the neighbouring country to have their asylum claims processed. However, there has been no tangible progress on the complex scheme, which, if it takes effect, would cost Italy €670m (£560m) over five years.
The Meloni government has also enacted draconian policies against charity ships in the Mediterranean, with captains facing huge fines if they carry out more than one rescue operation at a time.
During Meloni’s first year in power, the number of people arriving in Italy by boat rose sharply, with the total reaching 125,806 in 2023, almost double that of 2022. But arrivals so far this year have dropped to 44,465, according to the latest data from the Italian interior ministry.
Meloni will point to the Tunisia and Libya deals for this achievement.