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.
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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.