US embassy cable - 04ROME3969

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ROME 003969 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NEA/ENA PLEASE PASS TO TRIPOLI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/14/2009 
TAGS: ELAB, PHUM, PREL, PREF, IT, LY, EUN 
SUBJECT: ITALY DEFENDS ITS NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY 
 
REF: ROME 3968 
 
Classified By: POL M/C TOM COUNTRYMAN FOR REASONS 1.5 (b)(d) 
 
 1. (C) Summary:  Faced with a political imperative to stop 
waves of illegal immigrants, the Italian government has 
stepped up cooperation with Libya and adopted a policy of 
quickly returning to Libya immigrants who land illegally in 
Sicily.  Responding to UN, NGO and opposition criticism, 
Italian officials stress they are continuing to provide 
immigrants with emergency assistance and are processing 
asylum requests.  Given the lack of a unified EU policy on 
immigration, Italian officials believe they have no choice 
but to act to protect their borders.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) In a meeting with Laborcouns October 11, Giuseppe 
Moscato, Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister of Interior, laid 
out the government's vision for dealing with the immigration 
crisis.  He provided official figures that reveal the scope 
of the problem.  Between September 29 and October 7, 1,787 
illegal immigrants (including 1,119 Egyptians, 11 Moroccans, 
23 Bangladeshis) arrived in Lampedusa; of these 1,153 were 
returned to Libya on commercial and military charter flights 
paid for by the Italian government.  Another 544 immigrants 
were sent to various processing centers; of these, 181 
received a temporary permit to stay; 122 were awaiting a 
permit; 140 have indicated a desire for asylum; another 101 
were awaiting processing.   According to a statement by 
Interior Minister Pisanu, UNHCR representatives were 
initially denied entry to the Lampedusa facility until the 
government was able to establish some order; a center 
designed to house 186 people had been overwhelmed by 1,200 
immigrants. 
 
Bilateral Agreements 
-------------------- 
 
3. (C) Moscato stressed that Italy's first priority was to 
provide emergency food, health care and clothing to the 
immigrants who arrive.  But he stated that Italy needs to 
take preemptive action beyond its borders to stop the growing 
tidal wave of immigrants, especially from African countries. 
Hence, the recent agreement with Tripoli to provide the 
Libyan immigration services with training and equipment to 
better control its borders before immigrants set sail for 
Italy.  The training would include courses on how to identify 
false documents, how to screen for explosives and drugs, and 
how to form border patrols.  Now that the EU has lifted its 
embargo, Italy will be able to provide equipment such as 
jeeps and surveillance equipment.  Moscato noted that Libya 
had a very long shopping list, not all of which would be 
filled.  Libya continued to be very cooperative but Rome was 
having difficulty dealing with Tripoli's idea of pan-Arab or 
pan-African unity, concepts that prevented the kind of visa 
controls and border security measures typical in Europe.  The 
agreement also provides for Libya to accept Italian flights 
of immigrants who are being quickly returned toLibya upon 
arrival in Sicily. 
 
4. (C) A imilar Italian program in Albania (which include 
stationing Italian Coast Guard vessels in Alanian ports) 
significantly reduced the number of Albanian refugees 
reaching Italy over the last few years, according to Moscato. 
 The majority of recent arrivals via Libya were Egyptians 
(many claiming to be Palestinian); to date, Moscato said that 
Rome's efforts to convince Egypt to control its borders have 
been unsuccessful.  He expected that Italian officials would 
raise the immigration issue with President Mubarak during his 
visit to Rome this week.  In his discussions with the 
Libyans, Pisanu has stressed the dangers of immigrants with 
terrorist connections who bring "disease and social disorder" 
to Libya.  Moscato believes the majority of boat crossings 
are organized by criminal groups charging $1,000-2,000 to 
deliver each immigrant to Sicilian shores.  The new, 
well-publicized policy of quick return will, he believed, 
discourage other immigrants from wasting their money on a 
futile effort. 
 
A "Global" Issue 
---------------- 
 
5. (C) Despite bilateral efforts, Moscato emphasized that the 
long-term answer to the immigration problem would require 
broad cooperation among EU countries and beyond, perhaps 
 
between the EU and the Organization for African Union. 
Poverty rates in Africa were growing and, ultimately, 
stopping the refugee flow would require increased 
developmental aid to the poorer nations.  He lamented the 
fact that so much EU funding is focused on cultural programs 
rather than development aid to combat what he considered a 
core security concern for Europe.  Also necessary, according 
to Moscato, was a new system of immigration quotas for both 
individual EU countries and the community as a whole.  A 
regularized system of legal immigration would, he believed, 
reduce pressure for illegal immigrants, discourage organized 
crime and regularize the flow of workers from Africa but also 
Asia and South America.  He noted that the EU should be 
concerned about discouraging immigration from Africa because 
many new arrivals migrate from Italy to the rest of the EU. 
However, he was not optimistic that the EU would adopt a 
unified approach to immigration because of the many 
conflicting concerns of member states.  Northern tier 
countries were concerned with asylum issues; countries on the 
eastern border were focused on refugee flows from the former 
Soviet Union; only the southern tier faced the problem of 
waves of boat people arriving from Africa. 
 
Detention Camps/Human Rights 
---------------------------- 
 
6. (C) Moscato was adamant that Italy was doing all it could 
to respect the human rights of the immigrants landing on its 
shores.  But he did not consider immigrants who were returned 
to Libya as being Italy's problem.  Pisanu will discuss the 
concept of detention camps located outside of EU borders next 
week in Brussels; Italy continues to support creation of 
these centers to take the pressure off of Italy.  At the 
moment, Italy was waiting for Germany to resolve an internal 
debate about its position on the camps.  Meanwhile, Pisanu in 
a statement stressed that Libya was a signatory to the 1969 
Convention of the Organization of the African Union, which 
"recognizes the Geneva Convention as a fundamental and 
universal instrument for granting refugee status," and that 
the 1969 Convention provides for member states to co-operate 
with the UNHCR.  Apparently without irony, Pisanu also noted 
that Libya had held the rotating Presidency of the UN 
Commission on Human Rights in 2002.  Moscato conceded that 
Libyan officials were ill-prepared to deal with the human 
rights challenge posed by these illegal immigrants, but he 
reiterated the hope that the widely publicized program of 
returning refugees to Libya would discourage future 
immigrants and reduce the scope of the problem.  In the 
meantime, Italy had to "act alone" to protect its own 
security and interests.  MFA officials reporting on PM 
Berlusconi's latest visit to Libya (reftel) echoed the same 
sentiments. 
 
7. (C) Separately, Laborcouns met with IOM Director for the 
Mediterranean, Peter Schatzer, who said that he would travel 
to Tripoli this week to evaluate the situation and make 
preliminary recommendations on how IOM could provide 
assistance in relocating refugees.  Schatzer noted that Italy 
provides significant funding for IOM initiatives in the 
region; theoretically, this could include support for IOM 
activities in Libya. 
 
8. (C) Comment:  While Italian officials would welcome 
EU-wide solutions to the immigration challenge, they face 
current domestic political pressure (especially from the Lega 
Nord) to take firm action and have opted first for bilateral 
measures, beginning with Libya.  Faced with UN, NGO and 
opposition criticism of its new policy of quick return, the 
government is stressing its commitment to protecting human 
rights and insists it is continuing to process asylum 
appeals. 
 
 
SEMBLER 
 
 
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 2004ROME03969 - Classification: CONFIDENTIAL