Kremlin assets on the internet are trying to weaponize a temporary "migrant crisis" to attack Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy simply because she is a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its hour of need.
Here is the notoriously pro-Kremlin Andrew Anglin account that comes up near the top on Twitter searches for "Migrants in Italy":
Here is a news graph that is being shared on other accounts that want to appear slightly more "objective" and less like blatant shills:
It comes from an actual Kremlin-owned site Sputnik News. Here is a link to the story.
It's nice of the Kremlin to care. So, what's actually going on here?
Yes, there has been a temporary blip in migrant numbers reaching Italian shores. Here is a relatively factual report in EuroNews:
So, what about the Kremlin narrative that this is only happening because Meloni is a fake nationalist and a crypto-globalist, secretly salivating at the prospect of more Sub-Saharan migration to Italy?
Since becoming PM in October last year, Meloni has been working hard to get on top of the migrant crisis. This is not as easy to do as shitposters on the internet make out. Italy is tied into all sorts of international and humanitarian agreements by previous governments that make it difficult to crack down without also causing diplomatic crises.
One measure the government has taken is to make it more difficult for "charities" and NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée to carry out sea rescue missions.
This is done by assigning rescue ships to various ports, including ports in the far North of the country, so that migrants and asylum seekers don't all end up in the south of the country. This raises costs and creates difficulties for the rescue ships, which were previously operating as a ferry service to the nearest piece of Italian land.
The rescue ships also have to seek permission to dock immediately after a single rescue, rather than sailing around filling up with more migrants to bring over. These measures put considerable downward pressure on migration.
Meloni sees the key to the problem to be agreements with North African nations to restrict migrants. As migrants also create problems for those countries, such deals can be mutually beneficial. In January, her government began a series of trips to North Africa capitals to sign agreements on migration. In January, the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani strengthened relations with Libya, signing an agreement by which Italy will give the Libyans EU-funded boats to embark migrants and bring them back to Libya.
Also, Meloni's anti-migrant stance is increasingly becoming a collective EU stance. At the latest European Council held in February, EU leaders agreed to step up their efforts on repatriations, fighting irregular migration, protecting EU borders, and on brokering agreements with third countries to prevent migration.
In fact, the anti-migrant attitude engendered by Italian voters and the election of Meloni has now spread across the Mediterranean itself, which ironically is the cause of a recent blip of migration, as migrants try to escape the increasingly less tolerant climate in North African countries. Many of the recent migrants were fleeing Tunisia, which has taken a sharp anti-migrant recently.
As reported by the Left-wing, pro-migrant Guardian:
Saied may be using the migrant issue to bolster his own power, but it reveals an ever stricter attitude to migrants, not just in Italy but also the wider EU and the North African nations, from where the migrants enter Europe. This should see numbers plummet in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
Of course, the Orcs in the Kremlin have no interest in any of this. The only thing that concerns them is that Meloni is against their monstrous invasion of the Ukraine, so they will use any weapon to attack her, even a small blip in the numbers caused by an increasingly anti-migrant Mediterranean that she has played a big part in creating.
Yes, there has been a temporary blip in migrant numbers reaching Italian shores. Here is a relatively factual report in EuroNews:
In the past 48 hours, more than 4000 migrants have reached Southern Italy - a new record - with some 2,000 people disembarking on the island of Lampedusa alone.
According to government figures, arrivals have tripled in the first three months of 2023.
So far this year, more than 20,000 migrants landed on Italian shores. Some 6,500 people arrived in Italy during the same period in 2022.
So, what about the Kremlin narrative that this is only happening because Meloni is a fake nationalist and a crypto-globalist, secretly salivating at the prospect of more Sub-Saharan migration to Italy?
Since becoming PM in October last year, Meloni has been working hard to get on top of the migrant crisis. This is not as easy to do as shitposters on the internet make out. Italy is tied into all sorts of international and humanitarian agreements by previous governments that make it difficult to crack down without also causing diplomatic crises.
One measure the government has taken is to make it more difficult for "charities" and NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée to carry out sea rescue missions.
This is done by assigning rescue ships to various ports, including ports in the far North of the country, so that migrants and asylum seekers don't all end up in the south of the country. This raises costs and creates difficulties for the rescue ships, which were previously operating as a ferry service to the nearest piece of Italian land.
The rescue ships also have to seek permission to dock immediately after a single rescue, rather than sailing around filling up with more migrants to bring over. These measures put considerable downward pressure on migration.
Meloni sees the key to the problem to be agreements with North African nations to restrict migrants. As migrants also create problems for those countries, such deals can be mutually beneficial. In January, her government began a series of trips to North Africa capitals to sign agreements on migration. In January, the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani strengthened relations with Libya, signing an agreement by which Italy will give the Libyans EU-funded boats to embark migrants and bring them back to Libya.
Also, Meloni's anti-migrant stance is increasingly becoming a collective EU stance. At the latest European Council held in February, EU leaders agreed to step up their efforts on repatriations, fighting irregular migration, protecting EU borders, and on brokering agreements with third countries to prevent migration.
In fact, the anti-migrant attitude engendered by Italian voters and the election of Meloni has now spread across the Mediterranean itself, which ironically is the cause of a recent blip of migration, as migrants try to escape the increasingly less tolerant climate in North African countries. Many of the recent migrants were fleeing Tunisia, which has taken a sharp anti-migrant recently.
As reported by the Left-wing, pro-migrant Guardian:
Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, has told a meeting of security officials that migrants are part of a wider campaign to change the demographic makeup of the country and make it “purely African”. [...]
Addressing Tunisia’s national security council on Tuesday, Saied called for urgent action to halt the flow of sub-Saharan migrants into the country. “The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations,” he said, going on to accuse unnamed parties of complicity in a “criminal arrangement made since the beginning of this century to alter the demographic structure of Tunisia”.
Saied may be using the migrant issue to bolster his own power, but it reveals an ever stricter attitude to migrants, not just in Italy but also the wider EU and the North African nations, from where the migrants enter Europe. This should see numbers plummet in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
Of course, the Orcs in the Kremlin have no interest in any of this. The only thing that concerns them is that Meloni is against their monstrous invasion of the Ukraine, so they will use any weapon to attack her, even a small blip in the numbers caused by an increasingly anti-migrant Mediterranean that she has played a big part in creating.
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