Italy: Adriatic-Ionian: TAP issues will be resolved, Italian FM

Italy Must Confront Its Past to Stave Off the Far-Right

2016/06/11 This year’s seasonal springtime rise in temperatures is expected to deepen Europe’s refugee crisis by bringing about a significant rise in the number of harried migrants approaching its shores. Italy, with its long and porous coastline, remains part the majority severely affected nations; 15,000 people have sought refuge in the country in the completed three months— a year-upon-year increase of 43%. As is the case throughout Europe, increased migration has spurred a resurgence of anti-migrant and racist sentiment. In northern Italy, militant right-wingers have torched Muslim prayer rooms in refugee camps and frequently agitate against foreigners. More worryingly, such extremism is going mainstream. The ultra-nationalist Northern League political party, considered moribund as recently as 2013 at the same time as it hovered around 3-4% in the polls, has jolted back to life by riding the coattails of its popular leader— Matteo Salvini— and his almost daily dose of vituperative anti-migrant rhetoric. The party presently stands at 15% in the polls and fluctuates between third and fourth place nationally.

Migration and Women’s Health: A Neglected Issue in Need of Action

2016/06/11 There is a current tendency to think of migrants as young men. Although in some cases this stereotype still holds authentic, patterns of migration are rapidly changing and additional must be done to ensure that vulnerable female migrants are protected, particularly in terms of their health. Although before in the European “migrant crisis” the vast majority of those arriving were men (over 70% of irregular migrants into Greece and Italy in June 2015 were adult men), this gender gap has gradually decreased over the completed year and UNHCR estimates that men presently make up only around 40% of migrants arriving in the Mediterranean. Forced movements in particular seem to affect higher numbers of women and children. Indeed, over three quarters of Syrian refugees registered by UNHCR are either women or children under the age of 18.

The Italian government has largely kept reporters from entering the shelters and interviewing refugees.

2016/06/11 LAST year, the news media focused intensely on the European refugee crisis. Some 800,000 people crossed the Mediterranean to Greece, a lot of fleeing wars we had a hand in creating, in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Each segment of their journey was carefully documented by thousands of reporters and photographers. But there is an extra humanitarian crisis in Europe we have heard much less about: the roughly 200,000 migrants and refugees who left Africa for Italy since last year. This year alone, some 2,000 have died while making the voyage.

Britain and Italy say agree on need for deep reform of EU

2016/01/06 Britain and Italy said on Tuesday that they acknowledge on the need to reform the European Union to protect the rights of the bloc's non euro zone members, promote business and tackle the migration crisis. Britain is renegotiating some of the terms of its EU membership ahead of a referendum due by the end of 2017 but Prime Minister David Cameron has so far failed to reach agreement on plans to restrict EU migrants' access to in-work benefits. Writing in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, the British and Italian foreign ministers said there was much common ground.