Migrations: Della Vedova, “Italy is committed to saving lives at sea”

GENEVA, NOVEMBER 30 – The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Benedetto Della Vedova, addressed today the high-level segment of the 112th Session of the Council of the International Organization for Migration, at the presence of the Director General, Mr. Antonio Vitorino.

“While the pandemic has exacerbated the situation of already vulnerable migrants and negatively affected direct assistance to migrants in terms of needs, response capacity, financial and human resources to be deployed, the Italian Government has continued and strengthened its commitment to saving human lives at sea in the Central Mediterranean, which has increasingly become the main access gate to Europe for irregular flows”, the Deputy Minister said.

He then highlighted that Italy devoted specific resources and efforts to its dialogue and migration cooperation with Countries of origin, transit and destination of migration flows, and recalled the bilateral cooperation with IOM on this issue, “a key element of this shared approach, even more so during the Covid-19 pandemic, when, through the Migration Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy has financed IOM projects with a specific focus on healthcare assistance, prevention and risk information campaigns, together with targeted testing and screening in Libya, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and in other countries’’.

Acknowledging the “exemplarity of the level of cooperation between Italy and IOM’’, Della Vedova stressed that “it is in our interest, and our intention, to keep on relying on the Organization as one of our main partners in the implementation of the different instruments of cooperation in the migratory field’’. In particular, he expressed appreciation for “the effectiveness of IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Returns from transit countries as a way to improve the management of migration flows’’ and he recalled how Italy deems it essential “to develop a European framework of cooperation, based on promoting regular migration flows and preventing irregular movements through effective migrants return systems’’.

In his closing remarks, the Deputy Minister highlighted once again that “risk-taking is inherent to migration, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made this dangerous undertaking even riskier. Nonetheless, migration will continue to be part of our lives, especially of those for whom migration often embodies the promise for a better and brighter future. Since its inception, the IOM has strived to ensure an orderly and humane management of migration, while promoting international cooperation on migration issues, and providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people. A commitment that Italy will continue to support, so to ensure that international mobility is as safe, orderly and sustainable as possible’’. (@OnuItalia)