A fter stunning elections across Europe, “far-right” parties (a descriptor provided by left-leaning media) have gained ground in nearly every country. Italy stood out among the results. Italian premier Giorgia Meloni more than doubled her party’s seats in the assembly.
What’s the largest driving force in Italy’s right-ward shift? Illegal immigration.
More than 150,000 illegal immigrants reached Italy by sea in 2023 — a 50 percent increase from 2022 and a 1,300 percent increase from 2019. Yearly sea arrivals have doubled annually since 2019, with no sign of slowing down.
Although Meloni was elected in part for her tough stance on illegal immigration, her government has struggled to plug the flow of illegal immigration that began years before she took power.
The illegal immigrants traveling to Italy by sea are largely coming from North African and Middle Eastern countries in crisis. In December 2023, most new arrivals were Tunisians (16 percent) followed by 13 percent Bangladeshis, 13 percent Syrians, and 10 percent Egyptians. Other nationalities arriving by sea in significant numbers were from Eritrea (7 percent), Pakistan (6 percent), Guinea (5 percent), the Islamic Republic of Iran (4 percent), Afghanistan (4 percent), and Ethiopia (3 percent).
Across all of Italy, one tiny island — barely two miles wide and seven miles long — has been hit hardest by the growing waves of immigration. The southernmost point of Italy, Lampedusa lies about halfway between Libya and Sicily. Because of the island’s location in the Mediterranean Sea, it’s the closest landing point for migrants traveling from North Africa to Europe by boat. Lampedusans have lived off of fishing and tourism for many generations. The island received international coverage when Pope Francis visited in the summer of 2013, just a few months into his papacy.
In the pope’s recent interview for 60 Minutes, the host, Norah O’Donnell, recalled his visit.
Norah O’Donnell: Your first trip as Pope was to the Island of Lampedusa, where you talked about suffering. And I was so struck when you talked about the globalization of indifference. What is happening?
Pope Francis (In Spanish/English translation): Do you want me to state it plainly? People wash their hands! There are so many Pontius Pilates on the loose out there . . . who see what is happening, the wars, the injustice, the crimes . . . “That’s okay, that’s okay” and wash their hands. It’s indifference. That is what happens when the heart hardens . . . and becomes indifferent. Please, we have to get our hearts to feel again. We cannot remain indifferent in the face of such human dramas. The globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease. Very ugly.
In defense of the Lampedusans, they have been merciful and generous hosts of illegal immigrants for the past several years. The islanders have fed, clothed, and sheltered them for years. “Indifference” is not the problem.
Rather, the island of 6,000 inhabitants physically cannot process thousands and thousands of illegal aliens. Last fall, more than 7,000 illegals arrived on Lampedusa’s shores in one 48-hour period. At the time, Lampedusa’s mayor, Filippo Mannino, said the migrant crisis had reached a “point of no return . . . where the role played by this small rock in the middle of the Mediterranean has been put into crisis by the dramatic nature of this phenomenon.” (“This phenomenon” being the exponential increase in the number of illegal immigrants landing on the island.)
In July 2023, Meloni traveled to Tunisia, along with EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen, to push the Tunisian government to stop the flow. Meloni offered $111 million in investment funds to Tunisia to stop the smuggler boats alone; she plans to curb the flow of migration from Africa through strategic investments.
The narrative from the left is familiar: Those who are opposed to illegal immigration are xenophobic, merciless, and cruel. Who knows the horrors that these poor refugees are escaping, risking it all to come to our shores?
NGOs then flood in. The Italian Red Cross sets up beds and hands out food. Processing centers are constructed. NGO boats are sent to rescue illegal immigrants at risk of drowning in the perilous journey.
After five years of such intervention, the number of sea-bound migrants smuggled to Italy’s shores has risen tenfold.
The question is: Do European nations have an obligation to offer illegal immigrants — or refugees — safe passage to their shores? How can a country efficiently and effectively differentiate refugees from illegal aliens?
Of course no one wants illegal immigrants to drown in the Mediterranean while embarking on a dangerous voyage to Europe. The numbers are gut-wrenching and horrifying. More than 25,000 illegal immigrants have drowned in the Mediterranean in the past decade. Each and every death has been tragic — and preventable.
Would it not be in everyone’s best interest if crises in nations such as Tunisia were mitigated, so thousands of Tunisians would not be forced to flee (or be smuggled) to the shores of European nations? Meloni has said that “relocation was not the issue — stopping the arrivals was.”
The nature of sovereign duty lies at the heart of the immigration debate. Does a country have a primary obligation to its citizens, or to all humankind? When there is legitimately no more room to take in illegal immigrants — as in the case of Lampedusa — whose plight takes priority? That of the Lampedusans, or that of the illegal immigrants arriving by boatloads on the shore?
Meloni has promised to prioritize the needs of Italians over the demands of international NGOs, and that promise alone has rocketed her party’s popularity. As America gears up for the 2024 election, the same issue of illegal immigration is swaying voters more than any other.
Now more than ever, the West needs smart immigration policies that will uphold the dignity of each human being, address humanitarian crises judiciously, and discourage the unfettered flow of illegal immigration.