It is incorrect to call Britain’s decision to return illegal migrants to Rwanda “deportation,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday. Instead, she referred to it as a compact between two free nations aimed at ensuring people’s safety.
Meloni, who heads a right-wing government in Rome, met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a two-day visit to London, where she also talked to the press at the Italian embassy.
“I think that talking about deportation or suggesting that Rwanda is a country that does not respect rights and would be an inadequate or unworthy nation” is a “racist way of interpreting things,” she continued.
The British government intends to spend $150 million (about 120 million pounds) transporting thousands of people to the East African country.
Sunak has made it a key priority to prevent asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, which is now more than 45,000 people arrived on the English south coast in 2022.
Attorneys for a group of asylum seekers claimed this week before London’s Court of Appeal that the British government’s plan is unconstitutional since Rwanda is a dangerous place.
Since 2022, the number of migrants coming to Rome from the Mediterranean has climbed considerably. So far in 2023, over 41,000 people have arrived in Italy, compared to approximately 10,200 in the same period last year.
Following a terrible shipwreck off the coast of southern Italy in February, Meloni urged his fellow European Union leaders to take stronger measures to curb illegal immigration and avoid future maritime tragedies.
