Irregular migration needs a 'European answer,' says EU chief during visit to Lampedusa

euronews (in English)

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived on the island of Lampedusa on Sunday morning amid growing tensions related to a surge in migrant arrivals.

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00:00 Seeing for themselves at first hand the small boats abandoned in Lampedusa's Favaloro Cay

00:07 by migrants who've crossed from Africa. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

00:12 was invited here by Italy's Prime Minister after a week in which more than 8,000 migrants

00:18 came ashore on the small Sicilian island.

00:21 We are faced with such a large number of migratory flows that if we don't work seriously and

00:29 all together on the contrast of illegal departures, the numbers of this phenomenon will first

00:36 affect the border states but then all the others.

00:41 With Italy at the sharp end of the migrant crisis there were promises of support from

00:45 Brussels.

00:48 Migration is a European challenge and it needs a European answer and solution. It is concrete

00:56 actions that will bring change on the ground. It is only through solidarity and unity that

01:03 we can achieve this and you can count on the European Union.

01:09 But the scale of the crisis is testing that unity. The Italian government says 127,000

01:15 people have made the crossing to Italy this year, twice as many as in the same period

01:20 last year.

01:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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