New Germany’s slap to Italy on the topic of migrants. After the friction between Roma e Berlinwhich also involved Pariscaused by the decision of the two European powers not to offer support to Italy for the reception of migrants who arrived in recent weeks in Lampedusahere comes the announcement from the German government funding for NGOs engaged in the Mediterranean to rescue shipwrecked people. A disgrace towards the government of Rome which, with the Cutro decree and the new “code of conduct for NGOs”, aimed precisely at limiting the action of organizations involved in rescues at sea. But there’s more. 24 hours after the words of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellawhich he had called the Dublin agreements “prehistory”, the German government once again reminds Rome of its commitments on the readmission of the so-called ‘Dublinites’: “Italy is not respecting the readmissions of the Dublin system. And until he does, we will not take in any more refugees either,” said the German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser.
The German government’s decision was announced by a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry atAnsa and it generated surprise at Palazzo Chigiby the Minister of the Interior’s own admission, Matteo Piantedosi. “The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs is implementing a program of financial support established by Bundestag. The aim is to support both civil rescue at sea and land-based projects for people rescued at sea. We have received several requests for financing. In two cases the examination of applications has already been completed. The disbursement of funds, in these two cases, is imminent“, they explained without however specifying which organizations will benefit from the allocation from “hundreds of thousands of euros“. Even if last Tuesday the German ambassador in Rome, Hans-Dieter Lucashe had cited the Community of Sant’Egidio as a positive example, saying that he is doing “excellent work here in Italy and around the world. Germany will continue to support it. I am pleased to have signed a new project on migration today with (the Secretary General of the Community, ndr) Cesare Zucconi. Because Europe can only solve the refugee issue together.”
The total cost of the support project conceived by Berlin, continues the spokesperson of the German ministry, “is included between 400 thousand and 800 thousand euros“, then recalling that that “by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2023 is limited to a total of 2 million euros for all projects” to be financed. “We don’t know anything about it, we have no ongoing projects, we don’t know that there are any discussions of this kind,” replied Piantedosi, commenting on the news. “I am surprised that” the German government “has these objectives of projecting its generosity on the national territory, I would suggest doing it on its own territory”, he added. Sources of Palazzo Chigi they add that “the Italian government will take action immediately contact with the German authorities for clarification. We trust that the news is without any foundation because Germany’s financing of NGO activities on Italian territory would be a serious anomaly.”
However, the spokesperson justified the government’s decision and his statements also included criticism of the Italian government’s policies regarding rescues at sea. “Saving people who drown and find themselves in difficulty at sea is a legal, humanitarian and moral duty. Like the national Coast Guards, in particular the Italian one, civil rescuers in the central Mediterranean also carry out a rescue task with their ships, because they save people in difficulty at sea”. And this is why, therefore, governments should support them instead of reining them in.
In her statements, the member of the ministry led by the exponent of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, also introduces another theme, also dear to the Minister of the Interior, namely that of European solidarity for a fairer reception system. A solidarity which, however, has disappeared from Berlin in recent days, when the government announced that it would not contribute to the reception of the tens of thousands of migrants who landed in Lampedusa in recent weeks if Italy does not restore the reception of the so-called Dubliners’, i.e. migrants who arrived and registered in Italian territory and moved to other EU countries before their application for international protection was accepted or rejected. “The German federal government is working hard to reform the common European asylum system in order to create” a sustainable and, above all, solidarity-based one for migration and asylum itself in the European Union, also as a basic condition for a functioning Schengen system and for the opening of internal borders”. “Italy – added Minister Faeser – is not respecting the readmissions of the Dublin system. And until he does, we won’t welcome any more refugees either.”