Italian minister to visit Turkey next week to discuss migration
Italian Minister of Interior, Luciana Lamorgese during a Special European home affairs ministers' council on Ukrainian refugees situation in Brussels, Belgium, 28 March 2022. (EPA Photo)


Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said Wednesday that she will visit Turkey on April 6 to discuss the issue of irregular migration.

Lamorgese briefed the parliamentarians on the implementation of the Schengen agreement and on the irregular migration movements affecting Italy during the committee set up to monitor the migration movements.

She reiterated that she held a meeting with her Turkish counterpart Süleyman Soylu in November 2021 and added: "It is important to prevent and combat human trafficking on the Eastern Mediterranean route. I will go to Ankara on April 6 to strengthen this strategic understanding."

Expressing that it is important to fight against irregular migration together, Lamorgese said, "Only in February, Turkish Coast Guard teams reported that 1,283 migrants were blocked on eight boats, some of them wooden boats and some fishing boats, whose target was the Italian coast. It is important to pay attention to these diplomatic relations."

Lamorgese stated that the migration route in the Central Mediterranean, which is in the Libya-Tunisia-Italy triangle, has also seen a decreasing trend in the arrivals of migrants in recent months and stated that the number of those who crossed the Mediterranean from the beginning of the year to date is 6,701.