Italian President calls for easier legal migration to reduce human trafficking

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has called on the European Union to simplify legal migration in order to solve the problem of human trafficking across the Mediterranean. 

He said this at a conference in Rimini.

Sergio Mattarella called for global action to combat migration, not the construction of "walls".

"Regular and sufficiently high quotas [for entry] are the only way to fight the cruel trafficking of people," the Italian president said.

If people in poor countries, Mattarella explains, see opportunities to get to Europe without using illegal carriers and risking their lives, they will be willing to wait their turn. This will reduce the number of unemployed migrants in Europe, according to the President. 

Cases of illegal migration to Italy have doubled in a year. Crossings from North Africa increased by 106,000 cases.

In July, the government announced that it plans to increase the number of entry quotas for non-EU workers for 2023-2025 to 452,000. However, businesses are asking for more than 800,000.