The Italian Cabinet met Monday to adopt new measures to crack down on migration after the southern island of Lampedusa was again overwhelmed by a wave of arrivals from Tunisia and the migration issue returned to center stage in Europe with talk of a naval blockade.
Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the Cabinet measures will focus on migrants who don’t qualify for asylum and are slated to be repatriated to their home countries. The plan is to extend the amount of time such people can be detained to the EU maximum of 18 months and increase the number of detention centers to hold them until they are sent back, since the capacity in Italy has always been insufficient.
