UK’s Starmer Praises Italy’s Meloni For ‘Remarkable Progress’ in Stemming Illegal Migration.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday praised Italian PM Giorgia Meloni for her efforts to go after gangs that profit from illegal immigration, which he said have contributed to a 60-percent drop in the number of illegal migrants arriving in Italy by sea. Starmer said the UK and Italy would work more closely together on the issue and share data and intelligence. Starmer also expressed interest in Italy’s plans to process some asylum claims offshore in two centres due to open in Albania.

On his first visit to Italy since his centre-left Labour Party’s landslide victory in July, Starmer expressed interest in the immigration policies of far-right leader Meloni — including plans to operate Italian-run migrant centres in Albania — and stressed the importance of cross-border cooperation.

“You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration at the source and to tackle the gangs,” Starmer told Meloni during a joint press conference in Rome.

“As a result, irregular arrivals to Italy by sea are down 60 percent since 2022,” said Starmer, who has vowed to fight illegal migration at home.

His visit, in which he toured a national immigration coordination centre with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, came a day after the latest migrants shipwreck in the Channel claimed eight lives.

The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died this year trying to reach British shores.

Starmer has rejected the previous Conservative government’s plan to expel all undocumented migrants to Rwanda while their asylum claims are examined.

As a former chief prosecutor, he said, he saw the value of cross-border collaboration on fighting terrorism.

“And I’ve never accepted… that we can’t do the same with smuggling gangs,” he said.

“And now of course Italy has shown that we can.”

In Britain, the perilous cross-Channel journeys that migrants attempt from northern France have posed a fiendishly difficult problem for successive governments.

On Saturday, about 800 people crossed the Channel — the second-highest figure since the start of the year, according to the UK interior ministry.

Credit: France24