Nobody talks about the “Balkan route” because it gives less news than the landings and shipwrecks, because it is a silent phenomenon, which arouses less sensation. But the situation here in Trieste, and in the Northeast in general, is really on the edge: we don’t have the means to face a migratory pressure alone like that of the last few months, which would need European intervention to resolve . But the EU is standing by and watching because, after all, this situation pleases everyone. Except, of course, Italy». Roberto Dipiazza, mayor of Trieste (with a centre-right civil list), a border town par excellence, denounced once again a phenomenon that is rarely spoken about, despite existing, in all its drama, for more than twenty years: hundreds of thousands of migrants, including asylum seekers and irregular migrants, who enter Italy every year through the country’s eastern border, increasing month after month, reaching the record numbers recorded in 2023.
Mayor, to what extent is Trieste feeling the effects of the exceptional migratory wave that has hit Italy in these first 8 months of the year?
«The situation here is very difficult, bordering on unsustainable: too many people arrive and we can’t take it anymore. We do our best, because we’re always talking about being human, but we can’t do it alone, even if the government is giving us a hand. I can only say that today in Trieste we have 500 foreign minors to manage, a colossal commitment for a city like ours. Because it is one thing to organize the reception of adult migrants, it is another thing, however, to deal with dignity with 13 or 14 year olds, who need very different support, from every point of view”.
How do you manage hospitality in a small town like yours?
«In recent months, tens of thousands of people have passed through Trieste, almost all of them now installed in various locations in the city, except for a few hundred who are parked in Piazza della Libertà at night, creating a situation of objective criticality . And not just here. I receive daily phone calls from mayors in difficulty in neighboring small villages – we are talking about villages with 800 inhabitants – forced to take care of migrants without having the logistical or economic capacity. There is a total lack of serious and organized planning in the reception system, here as in the rest of the country”.
Giorni makes his statement, in which he claims that someone in Europe was using the migratory crisis to put the Meloni government in difficulty, aroused a lot of controversy. Do you still have this opinion?
“Right. It’s a concept that I repeat. Doesn’t it seem strange to you that landings are concentrated only in our country, while other Mediterranean countries are little affected by migratory pressure? This scenario naturally leads us to ask more than one question: I believe that there is a desire on the part of several subjects to embarrass the Italian government using the landings as a political weapon. In short, if we reached more than 100,000 landings in just 8 months, there must be something strange».
Is waiting for help from the EU therefore a vain hope?
“Under current conditions, I fear so. You have to say it like it is, honestly. France, for example, unilaterally suspended the Schengen rules on the Ventimiglia border, while Italy did not do the same with Slovenia and Croatia, the two European countries of entry on the “Balkan route”, through which thousands of migrants per year enter our country. without anyone stopping them. So much so that in Slovenia or Croatia, I can assure you, practically not 1% of all people who pass by stop there. These are things that nobody says, but this is the reality. In such a situation it would be reasonable to expect community intervention or at least mutual aid. And instead, it seems to me that the EU prefers to sit by the window and brag about the problems that the migration crisis is causing the Meloni government, rather than helping us to tackle a problem that should actually worry the whole of Europe”.
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.