Italy, Britain agree to do more to fight human smugglers, says Meloni

ROME: Italy and Britain, looking to halt the flow of boat migrants, have decided that they need to intensify the battle against human traffickers, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday after meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“It’s clearly a phenomenon that affects the whole European continent,” Meloni said during a joint news conference. “We agree with Prime Minister Starmer that the first thing we need to do is to intensify the fight against human trafficking, do it by uniting our efforts much more,” she added.

While touring the migrant coordination centre, Starmer said it looked like the lower migrant arrivals to Italy were due to “work that´s been done in some of the countries where people are coming from”.

“I´ve long believed, by the way, that prevention and stopping people travelling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue,” he added. Starmer´s trip to Italy has already spurred criticism, even within his own party. Labour MP Kim Johnson told The Guardian newspaper it was “disturbing that Starmer is seeking to learn lessons from a neo-fascist government, particularly after the anti-refugee riots and far-right racist terrorism that swept Britain this summer”.