ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has admitted she had hoped to do “better” on controlling irregular migration, which has surged since her far-right party won historic elections a year ago.

“Clearly we hoped for better on immigration, where we worked so hard,” she said in an interview marking the win, broadcast late on Saturday on the TG1 channel.

“The results are not what we hoped to see. It is certainly a very complex problem, but I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it.” Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party was elected in large part on a promise to reduce mass migration into Italy. But the number of people arriving on boats from North Africa has instead surged, with more than 130,000 recorded by the interior ministry so far this year — up from 70,000 in the same period of 2022.

After 8,500 people arrived on the tiny island of Lampedusa in just three days earlier this month, Meloni demanded the European Union do more to help relieve the pressure.

Brussels agreed to intensify existing efforts, and this week said it would start to release money to Tunisia — from where many of the boats leave — under a pact aimed at stemming irregular migration from the country.

But Meloni’s main coalition partner, Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigration League party, has been dismissive of EU efforts to manage the surge of arrivals that he dubbed an “act of war”.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2023