ROME – During a bilateral meeting with the UK’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, in London on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni approved of Britain’s policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

 In talks that lasted about an hour and a half, Meloni drew a positive balance of the meeting, commenting that “an excellent feeling emerged between us, a desire to work together on many fronts.”

 The issue of immigration was one of the main topics touched on by the two leaders and Meloni let it be known that she fully shared and supported the British government’s policies, including the idea of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. 

 “We have to come to terms with the fact that we cannot take in all those who come to us illegally and therefore solutions have to be sought,” she said as she returned to her hotel after her first day in London. 

 “With the necessary guarantees of respect for human rights, of care, of economic sustenance, what is being challenged?” 

 “I have been proposing for a long time that hot spots should be opened in North Africa, that we assess the international community who has the right to be a refugee and who does not, so I do not see anything wrong with that.”

 “I think it is wrong to give the impressions that when we talk about African countries we are talking about countries that do not have respect and fundamental rights. This is not the case. On the contrary, we must support them,” Meloni continued. 

 “But to say that whoever wants to enter illegally, we must welcome him, I contested it before, and I contest it now. So, whoever finds solutions that respect the rule of law, that respect the necessary humanitarian rules, I find them all useful initiatives.”

cw