The U.S. border crisis has reached such a troubling point that even the Democratic mayor of New York City said that it is on track to destroy the nation’s most populous city.
In Europe, however, the unchecked influx of migrants from Africa and elsewhere could pose an even more existential crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a rare voice of opposition to illegal immigration within the European Union, recently addressed the arrival of thousands of migrants on the island of Lampedusa last week.
Roughly 8,500 migrants via nearly 200 boats over the course of just three days. Their arrival more than doubled the population of the island.
About 1,500 migrants were being housed at an Italian Red Cross facility as of Sunday, despite the center having a maximum capacity of just 400. Many of the migrants had been transferred to Sicily by that point, but the number of arrivals continued to outpace officials’ ability to relocate them.
“The future that Europe wants for itself … is at stake here, because the future of Europe depends on Europe’s capacity to face major challenges,” Meloni said.
She urged EU leaders to unite behind the common goal of combating the precipitous rise in illegal immigration across the continent.
Although it has not received as many migrants as some other European nations, Italy has experienced a marked uptick over the past several years. Almost 126,000 migrants have arrived in the country by boat thus far this year, which is nearly twice as many as last year at the same point and roughly three times as many as in 2021.
This is the Italian island of Lampedusa after 8000 migrants arrived.
This video represents the invasion that is going on in Europe.
If the only hope for Europe, Meloni, is allowing this, imagine what is going on in officially socialist countries.
Sad.
— Ada Lluch 🇪🇸 (@ada_lluch) September 14, 2023
The recent record was set in 2016 when roughly 181,000 migrants arrived by sea over the course of the entire year.
In addressing the troubling influx, Meloni promised Italians that the government is “doing everything possible” to remedy the problem.
The prime minister’s remarks this week came just two days after she promised to take “extraordinary measures” to handle the crisis.
“Obviously, Italy and Europe cannot welcome this massive influx of people, especially when these migrant flows are being managed by unscrupulous traffickers,” she declared on Friday.
