Italy and Germany continue to discuss the issue of migration. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini accuses Berlin of ‘flooding’ Italian coasts with refugees through partial funding of NGOs. Germany rejects this, but no longer wants to accept refugees.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and head of the right-wing ruling Lega party, Matteo Salvini, is outraged by the German government’s payments to NGOs carrying out rescue missions for migrants in need in the Mediterranean.
“Foreign governments finance foreign private associations to flood Italy with illegal immigrants. This is shameful and unacceptable,” Salvini wrote on Instagram on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin pointed out on Friday that a decision of the Bundestag was being implemented. The first tranche – between 400,000 and 800,000 euros each – should be paid ‘soon’ to a project to care for migrants on land and a project to rescue migrants at sea. One of the organizations is SOS Humanity.
Berlin is fighting back
The Italian government subsequently demanded an explanation, insisting that German financing of migrant projects in Italy was a serious “anomaly”. Rescuing people in distress at sea is a humanitarian and moral duty, a spokesperson for the Berlin Foreign Ministry told ANSA.
“Like the national coast guards, especially the Italian coast guard, civilian rescue workers in the central Mediterranean also take on a rescue task with their ships,” the spokesperson said.
Germany stops the admission program
There has been repeated friction between the two countries in recent times. The German federal government suspended the voluntary admission program in August – also in protest against the fact that Italy is currently blocking the readmission of refugees under the so-called Dublin rules.
“Italy is not complying with the Dublin takeover. And as long as Italy does not do that, we will no longer accept refugees,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said last Thursday about the ZDF program “maybrit illner”.
Source: Krone
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