The European Union was committing “structural genocide” against irregular migrants, whereas politicians used the “invasion” of immigrants as an electoral weapon, the founder and director of Spanish NGO Open Arms said.
Óscar Camps founded Open Arms in 2015, moved by the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees. Since then, the activist won several international awards for his solidarity work. He sharply criticised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to process migrants in Albania, according to Euractiv.
“Italian politics has always been a big show. It was already so in 2019 with [Matteo] Salvini, it was already so with [former prime minister and Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe] Conte. Salvini has added even more spectacle with shocking media campaigns, including the ‘closed ports’ for NGOs.”
Camps also lashed out at Meloni, whose government passed a decree in an attempt to prevent the judiciary from overturning a controversial agreement with Albania.
Meloni has gone much further [than Salvini]. Sometimes, the far-right believes it is above justice, international conventions, and international law.
Italian journalist and activist Maurizio Belpietro also condemned the efforts of the current government.
“Our judges swear allegiance to the Constitution, not to community rulings. Yet they reject the executive’s Albania plan in the name of the Union. While Sweden has no qualms about sending 22 immigrants to Iraq.”
The Open Arms director was outraged that Italy itself had decided “what is and what is not a safe country” when it came to locating future migrant processing centres in countries outside the EU territory. He claimed that by approving the emergency decree, Meloni was seeking public support, but sooner or later the courts would overturn her plan.
Outsourcing [the management of migratory flows] is paying someone so that people’s rights are violated outside your country [an EU country]. While these humanitarian tragedies are happening, in Europe, we are dominated by the discourse of fear. European immigration policy is a structural genocide.
