France, Italy launch project to exchange migrant trafficking information

France, Italy launch project to exchange migrant trafficking information

The interior ministers of France and Italy signed a declaration on their intention to exchange information related to migrant trafficking, the French interior ministry said on Friday.

The project will be modeled after a similar deal between France and Britain, launched in 2020 in the north of France in a bid to stop attempts to reach the United Kingdom.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

France's new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a law-and-order politician from the conservative Republican party (LR), said it was his priority to further toughen immigration laws, echoing remarks from the prime minister who said the country needed to control its border better.

Immigration is also a tense domestic issue in Italy, where far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to drastically curb entries, though has not yet proved successful.

KEY QUOTES

"Its objective is clear: to trigger judicial investigations, often combined, aimed at dismantling the networks underpinning the illegal flow through Italy to the rest of the European Union, in which France remains a sought-after destination," the French interior ministry said in a statement.

CONTEXT

In November 2022, tensions flared between France and Italy after Italy refused to let a charity ship with migrants dock, forcing it to go instead to a port in southern France.

The countries share a 500 km (300 mile) land border, mainly cutting through the Alps. Both countries are in the EU's Schengen area with no border controls between them, though individual countries are responsible for asylum seekers who arrive in them.