Sunak plans Italy deal to stop immigrants from Africa

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to strike a deal with Italy to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe and Britain, according to a media report. This was reported by the British newspaper “Telegraph” on Friday. Accordingly, the migrants are to be repatriated to North Africa.

“If we want to succeed in tackling illegal immigration, we need to tackle the problem at source and focus on the smaller boats,” the UK government newspaper quoted him as saying.

According to newspaper reports, Prime Minister Sunak sent his Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to Italy in mid-June to work out a deal. A government official familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the case was in Italy. However, he did not give further details about the visit. Neither the British nor the Italian government has commented on the newspaper report.

In April, Britain and Italy signed a memorandum to combat illegal immigration. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping illegal immigration into the UK one of his government’s top priorities. According to the British government, 45,000 people arrived in Britain on small boats last year. This year there were already 11,000.