“Just in the first three months of this year, more than 300 percent more refugees arrived in Italy compared to last year,” Weber told the German newspaper Bild.
He recalled that Italy declared a state of emergency for six months due to increasing migration. “Italy has already declared a state of emergency and other EU countries are looking the other way,” he said.
Experts are particularly concerned that smugglers have an easy time in Tunisia in particular. More and more refugees are reaching Italy from Tunisia via the Mediterranean route.
The share of migrants in France jumped over a tenth
Foreign
The Frontex agency warns that if politicians do not act, as many migrants will reach Europe by the summer as in the whole of last year (330 thousand).
The European Commission does not accept this forecast. However, the Italian Ministry of the Interior uses statistics to prove a bleak forecast.
Since the beginning of the year, 31,290 migrants have arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean Sea, compared to about 6,830 in the same period last year and 8,400 in 2021.
A catastrophic situation reigns on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, which is a frequent destination for migrants because it is the closest to the shores of Africa – about 190 kilometers from the Tunisian port of Sfax. There are 2,000 people in the reception center there with a capacity of 400 people.
According to the Frontex report, 57 percent of migrants reach Europe from Tunisia. The country replaced Libya as the main transfer country. The vast majority of refugees come from sub-Saharan Africa.
But not all arrive by boat across the Mediterranean.
More and more migrants arrive by plane. The Frontex agency warns that a significant number of migrants from Ivory Coast, for example, arrive in Tunisia by plane, as they can stay in the country for three months under the tourist regime without any problems after arriving under visa-free travel.
Manfred Weber therefore wants the Union to negotiate a “migration pact” with Tunisia similar to the agreement with Turkey.
“The EU is sleepwalking into a new migration crisis. The EU must immediately negotiate a migration pact with Tunisia. Similar to the deal with Turkey, the smuggling gangs must be stopped together,” he added.
According to him, the European Commission must quickly negotiate new agreements on the readmission of migrants. “Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants remain in the EU because their home country will not take them back. It can’t stay like this.’
Migration to Germany is exploding
Europe
