UK and Italy 'join hands' to control immigration, Prime Minister Sunak criticized for 'toxic' words

The British Prime Minister was accused on December 16 of adopting the "toxic" rhetoric of his former home secretary Suella Braverman, after he warned that migration would "overwhelm" European countries without decisive action.

Anh và Italy ‘bắt tay’ kiểm soát di cư, Thủ tướng Sunak bị chê lời lẽ ‘độc hại’. (Nguồn: Independent)

British Prime Minister Sunak and Italian Prime Minister met in Italy and discussed the migration issue. (Source: Independent)

In remarks that further inflamed a Conservative Party row over migration that has been raging for weeks, the British prime minister said that “the enemy” was “deliberately bringing people to our shores to try to destabilize our society,” according to The Guardian .

Mr Sunak made the comments at a festival in Rome organised by the far-right Brothers of Italy party, attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying both were inspired by Margaret Thatcher’s uncompromising radicalism in doing “whatever it takes” to “stop the boats”.

Accordingly, he announced that he would promote efforts to reform the global asylum system, while warning that the current increase in illegal migrants could cause some areas in Europe to become overloaded.

Reuters reported that Mr. Sunak said illegal immigration was causing social unrest, asserting that a country should decide for itself who can come to its country. Both Britain and Italy are preparing immigration control measures to crack down on people smuggling gangs.

According to the announcement from the UK Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Sunak had previously held official talks with his host country counterpart Georgia Meloni at the Italian Prime Minister's Office. The two sides agreed to jointly fund a project to help voluntarily repatriate refugees back to Tunisia. The Italian Prime Minister's Office affirmed that this project would be in line with existing UN projects.

The announcements come as the number of illegal migrants arriving in the EU in the first 11 months of this year has risen by 17% to more than 355,000, mainly via the route from North Africa across the Mediterranean to Italy. Italy is now planning to send asylum seekers to Albania for processing, while the British Parliament recently passed an emergency bill to revive plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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