• 2 months ago
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has hailed Giorgia Meloni's 'remarkable progress' in tackling illegal migration gangs, adding they were both 'ambitious' about what they could achieve together.
Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00So, as we open what I think will be a new era in Britain's relations with the EU, our
00:07close friendship and partnership with Italy is more important than ever, and that's why
00:13it was very important for me to come so early on in my term as Prime Minister as a real
00:17statement of intent.
00:20And I think we're both ambitious for what we can do together, and that spirit has come
00:25through all of our long conversations so far.
00:28Not only have we made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes
00:35as equals to address the drivers of migration at source and to tackle the gangs, and as
00:41a result, irregular arrivals to Italy by sea are down 60% since 2022.
00:49We discussed the Albania arrangement, which isn't up and running yet, as you know, and
00:54therefore we don't yet know the outcome of it, but we discussed the concept of it, along
01:00with the prevention piece as well, because the numbers here, as I've said, have gone
01:04down quite significantly.
01:07That's actually not attributable, of course, to the Albania scheme, because that hasn't
01:11started.
01:12That, in my view, is more likely attributable to the work that the Prime Minister has done
01:17upstream, as it were, with some of the countries where migrants are coming from.

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