H.E. Mr. Giovanni Adorni Braccesi Chiassi:

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the joint committee on the immigration and refugee crisis that is occurring in eastern Europe and the southern Mediterranean. Today is the second time in six months that I have had the honour to tackle this matter with members. On 29 April last, I was here with Mr. Peter Sutherland, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for International Migration, to speak about the difficult situation on the southern coasts of Italy in the face of the continuous flow of migrants from North Africa.

This is a crisis that began a long time ago. I recall that this problem was one of the major points in the programme of the Italian Presidency of the EU last year, and we launched the operation "Mare Nostrum" in November 2013. Perhaps the relevance of this problem was not perceived at that time.

In any case, I thank the Irish authorities again for having sent two naval vessels to help all those refugees. If we are to quantify the assistance provided by the European partners we can say that in the last few months they have taken on a third of all rescue operations in the Sicilian channel. I also note the fact that Ireland has decided to take 4,000 asylum seekers in the last few days.

The problem of migration and refugee flows is one which will be with us for many years to come. It is a world issue. I was surprised but very pleased to read that the United States is willing to take, apparently, 100,000 refugees in the coming months. However, this problem has two sides. On the one hand there are those who are leaving their countries of origin for reasons which I would define as political and who are asylum-seekers; on the other there are those who are leaving their countries mainly for economic reasons and, therefore, have a quite different profile. There are different demographic dynamics in Africa and Europe. In 2050 the population of Europe will be reduced from 730 million to 700 million, while in Africa the population will rise from 1.1 billion to 2.4 billion. That will continue to push population masses to seek better living conditions on this side of the Mediterranean. Furthermore, it is difficult to believe that the crisis which is occurring in countries such as Libya, Syria and Iraq will be solved in the short term.

However, to have a clearer picture of the crisis it is worth quoting some figures. In the past 18 months, 130,000 migrants were rescued exclusively by the Italian armed forces in the Mediterranean, and the numbers are rising. Last weekend, approximately 5,000 more people were rescued. In 2015, it is estimated that 200,000 migrants have transited from Libya to Italy, while for Greece the figures are even higher at 400,000 men, women and children. It is clear that a problem of this magnitude cannot be faced individually by any single European country for many different reasons. One of these, and one which is of great concern to public opinion in our Union, is the question of security and, therefore, first is the question of the identification of thousands and thousands of migrants. This is anything but a simple operation. Only a co-ordinated and joint action on the part of the European Union can attempt to define and set in motion an efficient strategy. Italy, which is exposed on the front line because of its geographical position, has endorsed the need for European action for many years. Today, at last, the awareness of this need has spread to many, even if not to all, European countries.

The European Union must assume responsibility and not just in terms of solidarity, but also because only co-ordinated action can attempt to channel and administer an event of such historical significance such as the one we are witnessing. It is necessary first to acknowledge that the Dublin regulation, conceived 25 years ago for a profoundly different migration reality, must be changed. The current context requires a much deeper action which can only move along the guidelines which were outlined in April by Peter Sutherland. Essentially, the European Union must define a common policy on asylum, to include uniform criteria for the provision of international protection and lead to the mutual recognition of decisions on asylum and to a mechanism for the distribution of refugees.

At the same time, it will be necessary to work at European Union level on the question of repatriation of irregular migrants. This will be a complex operation that will require the involvement at diplomatic level of the countries of origin and the location of important resources. There is no doubt that such an action will stand a greater chance of success if conducted in a co-ordinated and unified way. The repatriation of irregular immigrants which must obviously occur with respect to the dignity of migrants is an important step in the fight against criminal trafficking of human beings. This is an indispensable premise for serious policies on the reception of those who have the right to international protection. These can also go hand in hand with policies on the promotion of legal migration, which is more and more useful and necessary, both to counteract the decreasing population of many European countries, as well as for its positive effects in reducing demographic pressures and supporting the development of the countries of origin thanks to the flow of remittances. Furthermore, uniform criteria for the provision of asylum and efficient common policies on the repatriation of irregular migrants are a guarantee for the Schengen system’s stability which has been severely tested these past months. Freedom of movement within the European Union must be safeguarded as one of the fundamental pillars for us to stay together.

The management of migratory flows which at this stage are of a structural and unquantifiable nature also demands a strengthening of the European Union’s external action in certain contexts. The Commission has drawn up a useful document on the role of external action in facing the refugee crisis and reacting to the crises which are today the origin of the massive refugee flows towards Europe. We think the conference in La Valletta in November will be a particularly important testing ground in this context and point to the fact that the crisis is a world crisis. It will provide a forum for a wide and equitable discussion with our African partners on questions relating to development and aimed mainly at tackling the deep-rooted causes of these migrations and bring to the surface our shared interest in finding a way of managing them in a more ordered and mutually beneficial fashion.