Tunisia-Italian Interior Minister: A new agreement between Italy and Tunisia on migration

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorges pronounced Italian ships and planes will be tasked with detecting migrant boats and thereby stopping illegal migration via Tunisian coasts, following an agreement concluded between the Italian and Tunisian authorities.

It is not a matter of a “maritime blockade”, nor of an act of war according to the minister but simply to defend the interests of Italy which have suffered some of the consequences of the socio-economic crisis in Tunisia, she said.

She also emphasised that several reception centres for migrants have been deliberately destroyed by illegals in order to render them unusable.

The minister contemplated that Tunisia was a nation where there is security that its citizens are not obliged to leave, stressing the necessity to establish regular migration channels, granting temporary 6-month visas to immigrants wishing to work in the harvest of agricultural crops.