Italy must not be left to cope single-handedly with the growing influx of migrants reaching its shores as the weather warms, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Wednesday, urging "genuine solidarity" from Europe on the issue.
"The situation concerning the arrivals in the Central Mediterranean is constantly getting worse," Di Maio told reporters at a press conference in Rome after talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.
"Italy, like other arrival states, cannot be left alone to tackle this phenomenon which is a global one and affects the entire European Union's security," Di Maio went on.
The long-stalled negotiations on a new migration and asylum pact "can no longer ignore the reality before our eyes," Di Maio argued.
"The influx of boat migrants is increasing and this makes real and concrete signs of solidarity a matter of urgency," he underlined.
Di Maio called on the EU to adopt a new migration pact which "re-activates" the mechanism agreed by Italy, Germany, Malta and France at a mini-summit in Malta in September 2019.
In the so-called Malta Declaration the four nations pledged 'to set up a more predictable and efficient temporary solidarity mechanism' for disembarking migrants under which EU member states would aid the 'swift relocation' within the bloc within four weeks of arrival.
