On September 14, an Italian prosecutor asked a judge to sentence the leader of the right-wing League party, pro-Russian politician Matteo Salvini, to six years in prison for his decision in 2019 to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in the country. This was reported by Reuters.
Salvini, then the Interior Minister, who now serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation in the government of Giorgia Meloni, was accused of kidnapping.
Salvini’s decision to ban migrants from landing in Italy
The charges against Matteo Salvini relate to his decision as interior minister in August 2019 to deny Spanish NGO ship Open Arms authorisation to land 147 migrants rescued at sea near Lampedusa, leaving the boat blocked in the sea for almost three weeks, Euractiv reported.
Salvini is now awaiting sentencing for his decision that left the migrants “stuck” at sea. After that, the prosecutor’s office issued an order to arrest their ship and evacuate the people on board.
Salvini: “Defending Italy is not a crime”
At a hearing in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, the prosecutor asked for Salvini’s imprisonment. The senior judge will make the final decision at the end of the three-stage trial. The final verdict could ban Salvini from holding public office.
“Six years in prison for stopping landings and defending Italy and Italians? Madness. Defending Italy is not a crime, and I will never give in. (…) I would say it all over again: protecting the borders from illegal immigrants is not a crime,” Salvini wrote in a post on X.
In his 14 months as interior minister, Salvini has prevented several boats from docking in Italy in an effort to stem the flow of migrants. He has regularly accused charitable organizations involved in rescuing migrants of actually encouraging the illegal arrival of migrants.
Meloni’s reaction
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed support for her government ally Matteo Salvini. His Lega party is part of Meloni’s center-right government.
“It is unbelievable that a minister of the Italian Republic risks six years in prison for doing his job of defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate received from the citizens,” Meloni wrote in her post on X.
“Turning the duty to protect Italy’s borders from illegal immigration into a crime is a very serious precedent. My full solidarity,” the Italian Prime Minister added.
However, opposition parties in Italy have criticised Giorgia Meloni’s support for Matteo Salvini.
“I found Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s intervention highly inappropriate, as we believe the executive and judicial branches should remain separate and independent,” said Elly Schlein, secretary of the left Democratic Party, according to Euractiv.
Migration crisis in Italy
After coming to power in 2022, Meloni promised to curb illegal immigration from North Africa with stricter immigration laws, restrictions on sea rescue charities, and plans to build migrant reception camps in Albania.
At the same time, it has opened the door for hundreds of thousands of migrants to work legally in Italy, seeking to fill gaps in the country’s labor market and stop migrant smuggling.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the number of irregular migrants who arrived in Italy by sea in 2024 is about two-thirds less than in the same period last year, amounting to 44,675 people.
