Italian government not changing course on migrants – Meloni

(ANSA) – ROME, DEC 12 – Premier Giorgia Meloni said Monday that her government has no intention of softening its tough stance on migrants. “There has been talk of a change of course by the government (on migrants),” Meloni said in a video posted on Facebook.

“Absolutely not. The government does not intend to change its position. Our position remains absolutely the same: you don’t enter Italy illegally, you only enter legally. We want to combat human trafficking, illegal entries and deaths at sea. We do not want in any way to make things easy for human traffickers”.

Meloni’s executive, which was sworn in in October, has sought to discourage NGO-run search-and-rescue ships from docking in Italy. In some cases it initially denied these ships permission to enter Italian waters, which led to tension with France after the Ocean Viking ship ended up docking in Toulon.

In some more recent cases, NGO SAR ships have been assigned ports of safety in Italy that are some distance for the positions of the vessels. (ANSA).