France and Italy, hand in hand to combat networks of smugglers, who are transit migrants. Gérald Darmanin, the ministry of the Interior announced Friday, July 31, from Rome, the creation of a mixed brigade franco-Italian. "This is an extremely important point in the fight against this border-crossing immigrant populations underground ", of the region of Ventimiglia on the Italian side, to the region of Menton, on the French side, has underlined Gérald Darmanin after talks with his counterpart, Italian, Luciana Lamorgese.
The joint patrols already exist between the fonts in the borders of the two countries, but this integrated brigade meet for the first time, within a specific structure, agents, Italian and French placed under a single command, a-t was specified in the entourage of the minister. The legal framework and the place of the barracks of the brigade, which is expected to be operational in two or three months, are still the subject of discussions. For his first trip abroad since his appointment at place Beauvau, Gérald Darmanin wished to go to Rome in order to strengthen the franco-Italian "very important" in front of the " difficulties of migration to which Europe is facing ".
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joint Position
France wants a "common position" with Italy ahead of the summit of Interior ministers of the european Union of October in Brussels on a new "pact of migration" proposed by the Commission in September. It also hopes to obtain the support of Spain and Germany, where Gérald Darmanin will be in the month of August, he said. "We need reforms, courageous, able to express in a concrete way the principles of solidarity and equitable distribution of the burden between all the member States," said Luciana Lamorgese at the end of his meeting with Gerald Darmanin.
Paris and Rome have also decided that the agreement of Malta " can be not only incorporated in the law of the european Union, which is the Italian application and that we support, but also expand to all the countries of the european Union ", according to the minister. Germany, France, Italy and Malta had agreed in September on a temporary mechanism, based on voluntary work, for a distribution of migrants rescued at sea, but only a few countries, such as Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland were joined to this initiative. And the mechanism has been suspended due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus.
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engage in Dialogue with the Tunisia
" The agreements of Malta are suspended, but there has been several boats that have arrived on Italian soil and it is necessary today that all of the european countries to do what France and Germany have done, that is to say, both of the firmness outside of the borders of Europe (...) and at the same time, we must be able to distribute the asylum seekers when they arrived in Italy, " said Gérald Darmanin. According to the Italian ministry of the interior, 11 191 migrants arrived in Italy this year until the 24th of July, of which 4 000 are tunisian citizens.
in this regard, Italy has asked France to intervene with the tunisian government, economic difficulties are extremely high, to see how we could address this topic, precisely to reduce the pressure for migration in Italy ", said Gérald Darmanin. Hundreds of migrants also arrive on an almost daily basis in Malta and on the coast of the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily from Libya. On Friday, more than 90 sub-saharan African migrants who crossed the Mediterranean from the libyan coast have been rescued by the Italian coast guard and landed at Lampedusa, according to a journalist of the Agence France-Presse on the spot.
