Migration on agenda as Starmer visits Rome

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is "interested" in finding out more about Italy's migration control plans, including one for the temporary holding of migrants in Albania, ahead of a visit to Rome to meet his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni.

Because of its proximity to North Africa, the route used by many migrants to enter the European Union, Italy receives more migrants than any other EU member state, but according to figures from Frontex, the EU's border force, this year, there has been a 64 percent drop in attempted entries.

The UK's departure from the EU has led to a surge in people trying to make the dangerous crossing of the English Channel from France, because there is currently no legislative facility to return them, frequently resulting in tragedy.

The previous Conservative Party government devoted much effort and money to a plan to send would-be migrants to Rwanda, which yielded no results whatsoever.

When the Labour Party won the general election in July, one of its first acts was to abandon this, but so far it has not come up with an alternative.

"I've long believed that prevention and stopping people traveling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue," said Starmer.

Italy has taken steps to deal with the challenge of migration both as part of a wider EU approach and independently.

The EU has paid significant money to Tunisia to improve border security and coastguard facilities, and Italy has supplied patrol vessels and also made arrangements with nearby Libya.

But there has been concern about this because of fears over human rights abuses in some of the countries the EU has been dealing with.

"It seems that we are bankrolling dictators across the region," said Mounir Satouri, a French member of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. "That is not the Europe that we want to see. That is not the place which the EU should be holding in the world".

In November 2023, Meloni signed a deal with the government of Albania for it to build two migration centers, funded and managed by Italy, in Albania, where up to 36,000 people could be held while their asylum claims are assessed.

Although the Albanian authorities have said they only have such a deal with Italy, it has clearly caught the eye of the UK government.

In a BBC interview on Sunday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the two prime ministers would discuss Italy's approach to migration, "particularly with Albania".

When quizzed on the topic by Sky News, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also hinted that it was something of interest.

The arrangement, she said, is "effectively around having a fast track for those who have arrived from predominantly safe countries and is also a scheme that is monitored by the UNHCR (the United Nations' refugee agency) as well to make sure that proper standards are in place and we will see how it develops."