From the beginning of 2023 to July 12th, 73,414 illegal aliens reached Italy by sea, compared to 31,333 over the same period in 2022. Giorgia Meloni, who became Prime Minister of Italy in October 2022, is also radically increasing legal mass migration to the Mediterranean country despite running on a populist-nationalist platform to lower migration.
Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party topped the polls on their eurosceptic, socially conservative, and especially anti-mass migration platform. The 46-year-old prime minister even claimed she would impose a naval blockade to stop boat migrants, often transported most of the way to Europe by so-called “rescue” ships operated by foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). But she has thus far failed to do so, instead offering much of her attention to Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia instead.
Meloni has adopted a fierce anti-Russian, pro-Ukrainian stance, despite the damage the associated sanctions war has done to Italy’s economy. Her compliant approach has earned her a level of acceptance in Washington D.C., however, with President Joe Biden pictured holding hands with her in May, and recently inviting her to the White House.
While neglecting the issue of illegal immigration, Meloni appears to have caved to big business interests on legal immigration, with her government announcing it will hand out almost half a million visas to non-European Union nationals between 2023 and 2025. In 2019, by contrast, only 30,850 such visas were issued.
