Italy’s tightened border controls helped reduce migrant sea deaths in the Mediterranean during 2018, Italian media reported this weekend.
According to the Italian daily La Verità, “the Salvini method works,” referring to border controls by interior minister Matteo Salvini,
who has insisted that open ports fuel human trafficking and encourage migrants to undertake dangerous sea crossings.
There was no solution under the former Matteo Renzi government, the newspaper notes,
since he tried to punt the ball to the European Union and wrung his hands when the EU did absolutely nothing to resolve the problem.