The Ministry of the Interior accelerates the creation of rapid repatriation centers. One of the pillars of the new strategy put in place to contain the boom in landings on the Italian coast. The commissioner for the migratory emergency, mayor Valerio Valenti, is identifying the places where to install structures of this type, which should allow quick times to bring back home migrants who do not have the right to reception. We will start, for obvious reasons, from Sicily and Calabria. The first center of this type should be in Pozzallo, a port in the Ragusa area that has always been particularly hard pressed, where work has already begun. The places will be about eighty. The fact that it is used for accelerated expulsions is still not official, not least because agreements will have to be signed in advance with the countries of origin. In principle, therefore, it can also be used for other purposes. At the moment, repatriation agreements are only in effect with Tunisia and Egypt. This means that only Tunisians and Egyptians can be repatriated, but they are not the most “representative” nationalities of the migrants arriving on our coasts, despite the fact that Tunisia is the country from which half of the boats bound for Italy depart. Most migrants, however, come from Guinea (12,040 since the beginning of the year) and Côte d’Ivoire (11,888). It is no coincidence that the government hopes to reach the first agreement with the latter West African State. Recipients of fast-track expulsions are all migrants who come from countries that cannot aspire to refugee status. Once identified at the landing hotspot, they will be “deviated” to the accelerated processing centers where they will have to stay for a maximum of one month, the time necessary to complete all the preparatory bureaucratic procedures for expulsion and subsequent repatriation.
The Government’s strategy is clear, not least because the European Union cannot be expected to move from words to deeds, guaranteeing that common defense of external borders which, at the moment, is just a commitment written on paper yet to be translated into concrete measures. It is no coincidence that in recent days the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, has announced a new decree for September that will focus precisely on the CPR (Retention Centers for Repatriation). Among other things, returns have already increased compared to last year. According to data released on August 15 by Viminale, in the first seven months of the year there were 2,561, against 2,000 in the same period of 2022. Finally, to ease the pressure on Lampedusa, a new hotspot is being built in Porto Empedocle, temporarily bringing the migrants to be restarted in the other Italian regions. Yesterday morning there were about two thousand people in the center of Lampedusa. So, during the day, eight hundred left the structure, which has a capacity for about four hundred migrants, although in cases of need the Red Cross, which manages it, has repeatedly emphasized that the number can grow according to needs.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
