With a letter that saw the light of day yesterday, the Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni she asked the rest of her leaders European Union make more efforts to limit it illegal immigration. “It is imperative and urgent to take immediate concrete, decisive and innovative measures to combat and prevent illegal departures from third countries, with urgent special payments to countries of origin and transit for active cooperation,” she said in her letter.

Meloni told Rai TV that she sent a letter to the European Council and Commission on Monday afternoon, one day after the shipwreck in southern Italy. The wreck was carrying more than 200 refugees, 60 of whom were found drowned, and began its journey a few days earlier from the coast of Turkey. Among the dead were 12 children and a baby. “Our moral duty is to prevent the recurrence of such shipwrecks. Without decisive steps, migratory pressure will soon take on unpredictable dimensions. Our government is ready to support any initiative so that we no longer mourn the loss of so many people. The point is not to stop migration to Europe, but to slow down traffickers. We must develop and support legal immigration channels and make a clear distinction between refugees and economic migrants,” she said in a statement.