Italy and Denmark reject criticize and reject "uncontrolled immigration": "We do not accept uncontrolled immigration to Europe"

Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister, and her Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen, have published this Monday a joint statement in which they reject "uncontrolled immigration" and call for repatriation centers in third countries. "We understand that many may question our collaboration. We come from very different political positions and, of course, we don't agree on everything. We are the only two women heads of government in the EU. One of us leads a large country in the south; the other, a small country in the north. But we are united by our desire to defend Europe," begins the statement disseminated on Meloni's social media.

In this text, both also affirm that, "we do not accept uncontrolled immigration to Europe and we have promoted a rigorous immigration policy, both in our countries and in Europe." After everything that happened in Ceuta, Italy introduced controls at airports and ports for travelers coming from Spain and subsequently the Spanish Government, given Italy's refusal to lift them, imposed the same measure for those arriving from Italy.

In their message, they continued by saying: "No one can deny the negative impacts of illegal immigration on our societies: crime rates increase, pressure on public services rises, and citizens' trust erodes." They also added: "It is particularly serious when illegal migrants, deprived of the right to stay in our countries, commit violent crimes, traffic drugs, or are responsible for sexual violence."

Along these same lines, Meloni and Frederiksen request the creation of "repatriation centers in third countries, as well as other innovative solutions outside Europe," a project which Italy had already carried out in Albania and now plans to do in some African countries.

In the same way, the leaders communicate that, "respect for our laws must go hand in hand with respect for European values. This applies both to irregular immigrants and to the millions of foreign citizens who legally reside in our countries and throughout Europe." And to conclude their message, they have stated that, "we are proud of Europe's Christian cultural heritage and want to protect it. We hope that those who come to our countries and choose Europe as their home will respect our values and not try to impose on us ways of life that we do not share," they indicate, before concluding that, "this is the right way to protect Europe and our common values."