Michel Barnier, French Prime Minister, rejected this Friday the Italian model of deporting migrants to third countriesafter meeting with the Italian Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs.
“I don’t think this idea is transportable to France (…) for legal and institutional reasons”said the head of the French Government, a day after the president, Emmanuel Macron, declared himself “sceptical” during the European summit in Brussels.
Barnier, who met on the Franco-Italian border with the Italian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, and Interior, Matteo Paintedosi, opted more for increase cooperation with countries of origin and transit of immigrants to confront this phenomenon.
Italy has opened a holding center in Albania to process asylum seekers there, a pioneering measure within the European Union that has received the support of some member countries.
The French Prime Minister, who was also accompanied by his Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, pointed out that the challenge of immigration “has to be European” and, in that sense, he considered that the EU immigration pact “is a good approach.”
“The issue of immigration is a matter of the 27, it was not like that a few years ago when it was an ideological debate. With this pact we will be able to deal with the issue all together, all countries are affected and we must face it without controversy,” said Barnier, who asked that the same spirit be applied in France as well.
The head of the Government pointed out that “the French want an effective, dignified and firm immigration policy”, which he considered “essential to achieve integration.”
He recalled that Paris has just notified the European authorities that they are prolonging the control of its borders and recalled that last year 70,000 entries were rejectedmore than half coming from Italy.
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