The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, travels on Sunday 17 September to the small Italian island of Lampedusa, where thousands of migrants arrived this week, reviving the thorny debate on the sharing of responsibilities within the European Union.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had deemed Friday night "unsustainable" the migratory pressure suffered by her country, and asked that the migration issue be put on the agenda of the EU summit in October. Ursula von der Leyen is therefore going there on Sunday at her invitation, announced her spokesman Eric Mamer.

A brief statement Saturday night from Meloni's office said the two leaders will speak to the press on Sunday at 11:20 a.m. local time (9:20 GMT) at the island's airport.

This migration crisis has been the subject of intense diplomatic activity for 48 hours. A conference call on Saturday brought together the interior ministers of France, Italy and Germany, a representative of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.

The conference was proposed by French Minister Gerald Darmanin, who had already spoken Friday morning with his Italian counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, and German counterpart, Nancy Faeser.

The German minister "stressed that Germany has always shown solidarity and will continue," a spokesman for her ministry said. As for the French minister, he will also visit Lampedusa "in the coming days", agreed Saturday Giorgia Meloni and President Emmanuel Macron, promising to "strengthen cooperation at European level (...) to find effective, immediate and longer-term solutions to this crisis," according to Paris.

Located less than 150 km from the Tunisian coast, Lampedusa is one of the first stopover points for migrants crossing the Mediterranean hoping to reach Europe. Every year during the summer, tens of thousands of them set sail on makeshift boats.

Between Monday and Wednesday, about 8,500 people, more than the entire population of Lampedusa, arrived on 199 boats, according to figures from the UN migration agency. The migrant reception centre built on the island is planned for fewer than 400 people.

While hundreds of migrants were evacuated from the island on Saturday morning, others arrived by sea. According to the Italian Red Cross, there were still 2,500 migrants in the overcrowded reception centre.

"Unbearable" pressure

"The migratory pressure that Italy has been under since the beginning of the year is unsustainable," Giorgia Meloni, who heads a right-wing and far-right coalition, said on Friday. She estimated that "tens of millions of people" in Africa may want to leave their countries because of coups or famine, deeming it "obvious that Italy and Europe cannot accommodate this huge mass" of migrants.

Emmanuel Macron defended a "duty of European solidarity" with Italy. Its Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, assured the BFMTV channel that the time was "first of all for solidarity with Italy", while Berlin has just suspended the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from this country because of "strong migratory pressure" and Rome's refusal to apply certain European agreements.

However, Berlin also seems ready to reach out to Rome, under the condition: the relocations provided for by the "voluntary European solidarity mechanism" can be implemented "at any time if Italy fulfills its obligation to take back the refugees" in accordance with EU rules.

"Germany is meeting its humanitarian responsibilities by hosting and caring for large numbers of refugees. This also applies to reception through the voluntary solidarity mechanism," the German Interior Ministry spokesman said on Saturday evening, adding that discussions were underway with Italy for the resumption of these relocations.

The President of the European Commission, with the strong support of Giorgia Meloni, signed an agreement with Tunisia in July to try to reduce the flow of migrants arriving from Tunisian shores, in exchange for financial aid to the North African country facing serious economic difficulties.

The League, the anti-immigration party of Matteo Salvini, a member of Italy's ruling coalition, had fired red balls at this agreement.

Due to lack of space in the Lampedusa reception centre, hundreds of people had to sleep outside on the streets, sometimes benefiting from the generosity of the inhabitants who brought them water and food.

A total of more than 127,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores since the beginning of the year, almost double compared to the same period in 2022.

With AFP

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