Premier Giorgia Meloni wrote to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Monday saying that she was “amazed” that Berlin had decided to fund NGOs working to rescue migrants at sea and helping them in Italy too, without liaising with the Italian government.
“I have learned with amazement that your government – in an uncoordinated manner with the Italian government – has allegedly decided to support with substantial funds non-governmental organisations engaged in the reception of irregular migrants on Italian territory and in rescues in the Mediterranean Sea,” she reportedly wrote.
“Both possibilities raise questions”, she said.
Meloni stressed in her letter that EU nations should instead focus on structural solutions to the migrant issue.
“I believe that the efforts, including financial, of the EU nations interested in providing concrete support to Italy should rather concentrate on building structural solutions to the migratory phenomenon, for example by working on an EU initiative with the transit countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, which would, moreover, require fewer resources than the one that has been in place for some time with Turkey”.
Earlier, Defence Minister Guido Crosseto said Italy would have expected assistance and solidarity in a moment of difficulty related to the uptick in migrant arrivals by sea, in his reply to further statements by a German foreign ministry spokesperson on Berlin’s decision to fund NGOs working for migrants and refugees at sea and on land in Italy.
Meloni tells Scholz stunned at Berlin funding migrant NGOs – English – ANSA.it