ROME (AP) – Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni vowed Friday to take “extraordinary measures” to deal with an influx of migrants, including calling anew for a naval blockade of North Africa, after a week in which more than 6,000 people arrived within a day on the island of Lampedusa from Tunisia.
Meloni invited the head of the European Commission to visit Lampedusa with her to see the conditions firsthand and called for a new European Union migration deal with Tunisia to be put into effect.
In a video distributed by her office, Meloni said that Europe needs a “paradigm change” to cope with a series of factors in Africa – conflict, instability, soaring grain prices and climate crises – that she warned could spur millions of people to risk their lives to come to Europe.
Italy to blockade illegal migrants?
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