ROME, Sept 14 (Askume) – An Italian prosecutor on Saturday urged a judge to sentence right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini to six years in prison for his decision to prevent more than 100,000 migrants from entering the country in 2019.
Meloni, then interior minister and now Georgia’s deputy prime minister and transport minister, was charged with kidnapping and is awaiting sentencing for his decision to abandon migrants stranded at sea.
Prosecutors have since ordered the seizure of its ship and the evacuation of its crew.
Prosecutors demanded a prison sentence for Salvini at a hearing in the Sicilian capital Palermo on Saturday. After a three-stage judicial process, the final decision is made by a senior judge.
After serving time in prison, Salvini could be barred from holding government office.
“I say it again: protecting the borders against illegal immigration is not a crime,” Salvini tweeted on Saturday.
During his 14 months as interior minister, Salvini prevented several ships from docking in Italy in an attempt to stem the flow of migrants. He often accuses migrant rescue charities of actually encouraging people smuggling.
Salvini’s League is part of Meloni’s centre-right government.
“It is unbelievable that a minister of the Italian Republic, on the orders of a citizen, risks a six-year prison sentence for defending the country’s borders,” Meloni said in a post on X.
“Criminalizing the responsibility to protect Italy’s borders against illegal immigration sets a very serious precedent. I fully stand by them,” he said.
Meloni, who will come to power in 2022, has vowed to crack down on unauthorized migration from North Africa through tougher immigration laws, a ban on sea rescue charities and a plan to build a migrant reception camp in Albania.
At the same time, he opened the door for millions of immigrants to work legally in Italy in an effort to reduce the country’s labor gap and prevent migrant smuggling.
So far in 2024, the number of irregular migrants arriving in Italy by sea has fallen by almost two-thirds to 44,675 compared with the same period last year, Interior Ministry data show.
