Rishi Sunak teams up with Giorgia Meloni to call for more action on illegal migration

Published

2 years ago

October 6, 2023

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Rishi Sunak, and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, have teamed up to call for more action to be taken to tackle illegal migration.

Both leaders have made reducing the number of people arriving in their nations outside traditional pathways a key part of their leadership.

The pair co-hosted a summit on the fringes of the European Political Community Summit in Granada yesterday.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were all part of the meeting.

The group “expressed a shared commitment to support one another to tackle the challenges of irregular migration”, and committed to taking eight steps to reduce illegal migration.

These including taking joint action to tackle organised crime, working closer together on sharing information, developing countries where people are leaving, strengthening visa regimes and working to improve returns within the group.

The group also agreed to “update the legal framework to strengthen our fight against people smugglers, ensuring harmonisation of criminal offences and working together at the UN level”.

Italy recently saw thousands of people arrive at the island of Lampedusa in a day. More than 130,000 people have arrived in Italy so far this year – compared to close to 71,000 last year.

Ms Meloni, speaking to Skytg24 to mark the TV’s 20th anniversary, hailed what she called progress made in Europe on the migration issue.

“At European level, there have been many steps forward,” she said in the interview, recorded before the Spain summit.

She cited a recent visit to the island of Lampedusa by Ms von der Leyen, saying that Europe was now speaking in “clear words”.

“Everybody understands the problem can’t really be dealt with by Italy alone,” she said.

Both the UK and Italy have had parts of their migration programme challenged in the courts.

For the UK, this is the Rwanda deportation scheme, which is due to be ruled on next week, while in Italy judges have ruled against steps taken by Ms Meloni to detain migrants.

As well as their meeting in Europe, Ms Meloni and Mr Sunak co-authored an article in The Times.

In it, the pair said they “are working together to stop the boats and we are calling on others to act with the same sense of urgency”.

The pair added: “Our determination to tackle this issue is already delivering results.

“It has sparked a change in the debate and created momentum across Europe.

“Countries across our continent are recognising that the current approach is not working.

“They’re realising that we need closer co-operation and tougher measures to crack down on the people smugglers.”

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This comes shortly after UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman called for an international asylum system reform, saying that “discrimination” was being used as a reason for people to claim refuge – when the bar should be “persecution”.

She said that being a woman or gay and fearing discrimination should not be enough for someone to qualify as a refugee in the UK.

Politics

Crypto influencers are replacing VCs, and that’s a good thing

Published

2 hours ago

August 9, 2025

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Crypto influencers are replacing VCs, and that’s a good thing

Crypto influencers democratize early-stage investing by offering transparent, accessible opportunities that VCs keep behind closed doors for the elite.

Politics

UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and New Zealand condemn Israel’s plan for new operation in Gaza

Published

10 hours ago

August 9, 2025

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UK joins four countries in condemning Israel's plan for new operation in Gaza

The UK and four allies have criticised Israel’s decision to launch a new large-scale military operation in Gaza – warning it will “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation” in the territory.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, Germany, Italy and New Zealand said in a joint statement that the offensive will “endanger the lives of hostages” and “risk violating international humanitarian law”.

It comes a day after Israel’s security cabinet approved an operation to take military control of Gaza City – and concluded a full takeover of the enclave is required to end the conflict.

It marks another escalation in the war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023.

In their joint statement, the UK and its allies said they “strongly reject” the decision, adding: “It will endanger the lives of the hostages and further risk the mass displacement of civilians.

“The plans that the government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law. Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”

The countries also called for a permanent ceasefire as “the worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza”.

It comes as Sky News analysis has found that airdrops of aid are making little difference to Gaza’s hunger crisis, and pose serious risks to the population – with a father-of-two killed by a falling package.

Meanwhile, France, Canada, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations all criticised Israel’s plan for a full occupation of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “expressed his disappointment” with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s in phone call on Friday after Berlin decided it would stop selling arms to Israel.

In a post on X, the Israeli prime minister’s office added: “Instead of supporting Israel’s just war against Hamas, which carried out the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding Hamas terrorism by embargoing arms to Israel.”

US ambassador hits out at Starmer

Earlier on Friday, the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, criticised Sir Keir Starmer after he said Israel’s decision to “escalate its offensive” in Gaza is “wrong”.

Mr Huckabee wrote on X: “So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas & feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved? Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them? Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer? That wasn’t food you dropped. If you had been PM then UK would be speaking German!”

In another post around an hour later Mr Huckabee wrote: “How much food has Starmer and the UK sent to Gaza?

“@IsraeliPM has already sent 2 MILLION TONS into Gaza & none of it even getting to hostages.”

Sir Keir has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government meets a series of conditions towards ending the war in Gaza.

The UK and its allies criticised Israel as US President JD Vance and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met at Chevening House in Kent on Friday.

Mr Vance described a “disagreement” about how the US and UK could achieve their “common objectives” in the Middle East, and said the Trump administration had “no plans to recognise a Palestinian state”.

He said: “I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state given the lack of functional government there.”

Mr Vance added: “There’s a lot of common objectives here. There is some, I think, disagreement about how exactly to accomplish those common objectives, but look, it’s a tough situation.”

The UN Security Council will meet on Saturday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, said earlier on Friday that a number of countries would be requesting a meeting of the UN Security Council on Israel’s plans.

Politics

BlackRock launching a SOL ETF in first wave would be ‘messed up’ — Analyst

Published

11 hours ago

August 9, 2025

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<div>BlackRock launching a SOL ETF in first wave would be 'messed up' — Analyst</div>

BlackRock hasn’t filed for a Solana ETF, but ETF analyst James Seyffart says they shouldn’t be allowed to jump in at the last minute after other issuers’ hard work.