Recently, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for her country's efforts in combating "irregular migration."
He stated, “You have made remarkable progress, working with other countries along migration routes as equals.”
He also noted that “irregular arrivals to Italy by sea are down by 60% since 2023.”
To achieve this, Italy and the European Union (EU) have invested millions in the Libyan coastguard. This funding aids in patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and provides essential training and equipment.
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), over 341,000 people attempted to cross the Mediterranean in 2023, with more than a third being intercepted and sent back to Libya.
Fulvia Comte, who leads an MSF search and rescue team, shared distressing accounts from migrants about being pushed back multiple times over two years and facing violence and torture upon their return to Libya.
“They are taken back to the same circle of violence and torture — of killing, of rape, and kidnapping,” Fulvia stated.
She further explained that while the Libyan coastguard threatens civil rescue fleets with dangerous manoeuvres, boarding their ships and trying to prevent rescues, the situation is far worse for migrants when search and rescue (SAR) vessels are absent.
Personal migrant accounts
Personal stories collected by The New Arab reveal the challenges migrants have faced due to Italy's implementation of pushback tactics.
Syrian refugee Amjad says he has never interacted with the Italian authorities, yet he has experienced the country's border tactics, which reveal that the plan is working: migrants are being stopped before they can reach Italian waters.
He recalled, “The Libyan coastguard intercepted us 100 km from Greece and tricked us into thinking they were British, so we would feel safe and approach them.”
Amjad added, “Then, we were transferred to their ship.”
Displaced in northern Syria in 2018 due to threats from the Assad regime, Amjad paid $3,500 for a dangerous journey on a rubber boat with 30 others to try to reach Europe.
After being picked up at sea by a group calling themselves the "Frogmen," Amjad shared his experiences, explaining that he and others were forced to “sing songs” praising the coastguard to receive water. He also revealed that their money and belongings were taken, and some were tortured for steering the boat.
“There were 43 of us in a space no larger than 7 square metres,” he further explained. “We suffered from a lack of ventilation, water, and food, as well as from inadequate medical care, all while dealing with numerous skin infections.”
When they finally reached the port, Amjad reported being detained.
After three days, a convoy of police cars arrived from the Illegal Immigration Control Department.
Amjad recounted, “The police car took us far from the city centre. And there, a broker sent by the smugglers came and took us. The whole thing had been arranged with them beforehand.”
Each person paid $300 to be released.
Despite assurances that the Libyan coastguard is tackling traffickers, Amjad’s experience shows how they gain profit and feed people like him back into the meat grinder.
After this ‘nightmare’ experience, Amjad familiarised himself with maps, learned their route, and obtained waterproof bags for his devices, noting that the satellite phone given to him had enough credit for one call.
Facing rough seas with three-metre-high waves, Amjad managed to contact a Syrian named Ghaith, who operates an emergency service to assist boats in distress.
“He contacted the Greek coastguard and advised us to move 20 kilometres closer, as the Libyan coastguard would take over seven hours to reach us. We had no choice but to accept the risk and continue,” Amjad revealed.
Eventually, after reaching out to a commercial ship, the boat was finally rescued.
The Piantedosi Decree
Currently, Italy is increasing its efforts to block rescue missions.
In 2019, former Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete was charged with helping illegal immigration after her crew and passengers waited two weeks in a heatwave for permission to dock in Lampedusa. The judge sided with Carola and dismissed the case, marking an embarrassing defeat for the Italian government.
As of last year, Italy introduced the Piantedosi Decree, named after Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.
This rule says that search and rescue (SAR) missions can only respond to one call for help before they must return to port.
With this new decree, NGOs often get fined, and their ships are detained for trying to help more than once.
Fulvia commented on the decree and told The New Arab about the current reality: ships are redirected to distant Italian ports, which wastes time and adds days to their return for continued operations. With so few rescue vessels available, this time away puts lives at risk.
Fulvia elaborated, “The problem is the (SAR zone) is less covered by ships that can perform rescues…”
She added, “We spend more than one-third of the time navigating from the area of operation to the port, and so far since we started, we have spent (the equivalent) of going more than twice around the planet.”
A Sea-Watch spokesperson also weighed in on the matter, stating that this hinders the mission and leaves no option to go to a nearer port. “You have to go to the port assigned, and if you don’t, this is a breach of Italian law and leads to your ship being blocked.”
Outsourcing migrants
As Italy tightens its grip on rescue missions with measures like the Piantedosi Decree, the country has also started outsourcing its migrant crisis to other countries.
In northwest Albania, the village of Gjadër, once home to a Soviet military base, has been transformed into Italy’s migrant processing camp — a project that has caught the attention of Starmer.
Migrants first arrive at a reception centre in Shëngjin, where their claims are processed before being moved to Gjadër to await their fate.
According to journalist Kristina Millona, the building isn’t finished yet, and the details are quite shady.
The reception centre in Shëngjin is surrounded by a five-metre perimeter fence and monitored by 40 security cameras. To add to the concerns, the project is managed by Medihospes Cooperativa Sociale, a company that has previously been investigated for mismanagement of public funds, migrant centres, and mafia infiltration.
Locals seem unaware of the harsh realities of the processing centre. Coming from a country where the government is corrupt and rife with trafficking gangs, there is hope that migrants will be treated well in these centres due to the perception of the EU as a bastion of human rights and democracy.
Kristina is not convinced, however.
She believes that Italian migrant pushback tactics come at a terrible cost, and Albania could be no different.
“The rhetoric is to fight the smuggling and human traffickers,” Fulvia also mentioned.
“What is absurd is this is a veil to cover up the real interests of externalising the borders: paying someone to do the dirty job that they cannot say they are doing.
“The criminalisation of (the civil fleet) is in parallel with the tough criminalisation of people on the move. From our perspective, it’s so much more difficult to operate,” Fulvia added.
No regrets
In reflection of Italy’s pushback tactics, Fulvia tells The New Arab that she envisions a world where the services of smugglers and human traffickers are no longer needed.
“Our struggle is not to exist; our struggle is actually being able to disappear as civil search and rescue vessels,” she shared.
Reflecting on his journey, Amjad has no regrets, stating that he would still have migrated.
“Syria not only lacks security but also the elements of a decent life,” Amjad says of his home country. “It lacks an authority that respects the citizen and the elements to build my future as I aspire.”
Ultimately, it is the most vulnerable who pay the price — a truth that Starmer must grapple with.
Amy Addison-Dunne is a freelance digital journalist with an interest in the Middle East and British politics. She has written for the Daily Mirror, Morning Star.
Follow her on X: @redamylou
Marwa Koçak is a journalist and translator with an interest in politics and human rights in the Middle East. She speaks Arabic, English and Turkish. She has written for Middle East Eye, Al-Jazeera.
Follow her on X: @MarwaKocak