ROME: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday, as the two very different politicians, from left and right, seek common cause to curb migrants reaching their shores by boat. The visit comes after at least eight seaborne migrants died off the French coast on the weekend.
\nSupport for Ukraine is also on the agenda for the trip, part of Starmer\u2019s effort to reset relations with European neighbors after Britain\u2019s acrimonious 2020 departure from the European Union.
\nThe center-left Labour Party prime minister isn\u2019t a natural ally of Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party. But migration has climbed the UK political agenda, and Starmer hopes Italy\u2019s tough approach can help him stop people fleeing war and poverty trying to cross the English Channel in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
\nMore than 22,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France so far this year, a slight increase compared to the same period in 2023. Several dozen people have perished in attempt, including the eight killed when a boat carrying some 60 people ran aground on rocks late Saturday.
\nStarmer promised \u201ca new era of international enforcement to dismantle these networks, protect our shores and bring order to the asylum system.\u201d
\n\u201cNo more gimmicks,\u201d he said before his trip to Rome \u2014 a reference to the previous Conservative government\u2019s scuttled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
\nMeloni pledged a crackdown on migration after taking office in 2022, aiming to deter would-be refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Italy. Her nationalist conservative government has signed deals with individual African countries to block departures, imposed limits on the work of humanitarian rescue ships, cracked down on traffickers and taken measures to deter people from setting off.
\nItaly also has signed a deal with Albania under which some adult male migrants rescued at sea while trying to reach Italy would be taken instead to Albania while their asylum claims are processed.
\nThe number of migrants arriving in Italy by boat in the first half of this year was down 60 percent from 2023, according to the country\u2019s Interior Ministry.
\nStarmer wants to learn from Italy\u2019s mix of tough enforcement and international cooperation, though Italy\u2019s approach has been criticized by refugee groups and others alarmed by Europe\u2019s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants.
\nThe leader of Italy\u2019s right-wing League, Matteo Salvin i, who is deputy prime minister in Meloni\u2019s government, has been accused by prosecutors of alleged kidnapping for for his decision to prevent a rescue ship carrying more than 100 migrants from landing in Italy when he was interior minister in 2019.
\nStarmer will tour Italy\u2019s national immigration crime coordination center with newly appointed UK Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt. The government says Hewitt, a former head of Britain\u2019s National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council, will work with law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the UK and across Europe to tackle-people smuggling networks.
\nSoon after being elected in July, Starmer scrapped the Conservatives\u2019 contentious plan to send asylum-seekers who cross the Channel to Rwanda, about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away, with no chance of returning to the UK even if their refugee claims were successful.
\nThe Conservatives said the deportation plan would act as a deterrent, but refugee and human rights groups called it unethical, judges ruled it illegal and Starmer dismissed it as an expensive gimmick. He has, though, expressed an interest in striking agreements like the one Italy has with Albania that would see asylum-seekers sent temporarily to another country.
\nThe Rome trip follows visits to Paris, Berlin and Dublin during Starmer\u2019s first weeks in office \u2014 all part of efforts to restore ties with EU neighbors that have been frayed by Brexit. Starmer has ruled out rejoining the now 27-nation bloc, but is keen for a closer relationship on security and other issues.
\nUkraine will also feature in his talks with the Italian government, which holds the presidency of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations this year.
\nUnlike some politicians on the European right, Meloni is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. Starmer meets her after returning from Washington, where he and US President Joe Biden discussed Ukraine\u2019s plea to use Western-supplied missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pressing allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to target air bases and launch sites inside Russia as Moscow steps up assaults on Ukraine\u2019s electricity grid and utilities before winter. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that would mean NATO countries \u201care at war with Russia.\u201d
\nSo far, the US hasn\u2019t announced a change to its policy of allowing Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia\u2019s border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday, as the two very different politicians, from left and right, seek common cause to curb migrants reaching their shores by boat. The visit comes after at least eight seaborne migrants died off the French coast on the weekend. Support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n