Greece and Italy step up cooperation on migrants

At a conference in Rome on July 23 organized by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, leaders of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries discussed some of the factors driving people to leave their homes and attempt to reach Europe. The Greek migration minister, Dimitris Keridis, represented Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who remained in Greece due to wildfires raging across the country on the island of Rhodes and other areas.

“Greece supports every initiative that strengthens international cooperation [on this subject],” said Keridis in a media statement released by the migration ministry.

He added: “The Italian initiative contributes to overall cooperation, on an issue that has often proved divisive in the past. In addition, it focuses on the core problem of tackling irregular migration at its source, before unseaworthy vessels depart from shore, and emphasizes legal migration routes with set rules.”

Three axes of north-south collaboration

Keridis took office last month and has moved quickly to try and follow on the work of his predecessor Notis Mitarakis, who is now the minister of citizen protection.

After the one-day meeting led by Meloni in the Italian capital, the new alliance committed to cracking down on human trafficking as well as trying to improve cooperation in areas such as renewable energy to fight climate change and improving the prospects of poorer nations.

In total, more than 20 countries agreed to make funding available to support so-called development projects in what Meloni described as a “Rome Process” expected to last several years.

Keridis said the plan adopts “a holistic approach of public-private, North-South, political and economic cooperation on three axes: development and stability in the countries of origin in order to exploit their potential; combating traffickers’ networks; policies with rules and controls for legal immigration according to the needs and possibilities of the labor market of each country”.

A common conclusion of all the participants at the conference was that criminal organizations are responsible for the tragedies in the Mediterranean, calling it “the exploitation of innocent, unsuspecting and desperate people. They promise them the European paradise and lead them to death”.

Increases in arrivals during 2023

Finally, Keridis stated that Greece welcomes the “Rome process” and supports any initiative that strengthens international cooperation, while emphasizing that “the success of the conference was its organization as countries from the south of the EU, the Middle East, Africa and international organizations, who met in a spirit of cooperation and not, as is often the case, confrontation.”

Despite the reductions in the total number of asylum seekers in Greece, there have been significant increases in the incoming flows of people during 2023 so far versus last year.

This comes on the back of figures released recently showing a huge increase in the arrivals of migrants to the country year on year – to the tune of 96% in 2022 versus 2021.

Attempts by undocumented migrants to cross into Greece on boats from Turkey have been on the rise since the autumn of 2022 and the Greek government continues to strengthen its security measures including by increasing the number of patrols on both its sea and land borders.