Russia orchestrating illegal migration to sabotage Europe, Giorgia Meloni warns

Giorgia Meloni has accused Russia of orchestrating illegal migration into Europe to destabilise the bloc.

The Italian Prime Minister attended a North-South security summit on Sunday between leaders of Italy, Greece, Sweden and Finland where she called for stronger defence of the bloc’s eastern and southern flanks.

She said: “We have to understand the threat is much wider than we imagine.”

“We want to defend external borders and we don’t want to allow Russia or criminal organisations to undermine our security.”

While Finland shares a land border with Russia Italy and Greece, Meloni was particularly concerned about the threats faced at sea.

“What we understood in this meeting is our borders are very different, so they need different tools. What happens here in Finland, where a fence is useful, cannot be done in the Mediterranean,” said Meloni.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called the threat along the border “an existential” question for EU members and Nato allies.

EU members including Finland and Estonia previously accused Russia of allowing illegal migrants to enter the EU via Russia without proper checks.

Russia has denied claims that they are deliberately pushing migrants into the EU to undermine security.

Moscow has also been said to use proxies in Africa to push migration into Europe through the Mediterranean.

The Italian Prime Minister has said she is working with Ursula con der Leyen, European Commission President, to liaise with African nations to combat illegal migration into the EU.

She doubled-down on her view that using third countries outside the EU to manage asylum requests is a good approach, despite Italy’s obstacles with processing centres in Albania.

Meloni said the EU had failed in tackling immigration over the years.

She said: “Tackling the issue of illegal immigration solely as a solidarity-based debate was a mistake,” she said. “The result is that we have been unable to protect our borders.”

Meloni’s comments come after Italy’s deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, was acquitted on Friday over charges of kidnapping more than 100 migrants aboard a boat he had blocked at sea for almost three weeks in 2019.