Italian leader Giorgia Meloni vows to take ‘extraordinary measures’ to deal with a migrant influx

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni is vowing to take “extraordinary measures” to deal with an influx of migrants. She called anew for a naval blockade of North Africa after a week in which more than 6,000 people arrived within a day on the Italian island of Lampedusa from Tunisia. Meloni invited the head of the European Commission to visit Lampedusa with her to see the conditions firsthand and called for a new European Union migration deal with Tunisia to be put into effect. Meloni said in a video distributed by her office late Friday that Europe needs a “paradigm change” to cope with a series of factors in Africa that she warned could spur millions of people to risk their lives to come to Europe.