Italy recently passed a law described as a first step towards taking back control of Europe’s southern borders.

The Decreto Cutro which came on March 9 had to be ratified as law by Parliament within sixty days to be made permanent.

Works for the whole of Europe

In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC Hungary, Simone Billi, who sits in the Italian lower house for Matteo Salvini’s Liga party, outlined the Decreto Cutro and proposed improving border controls to bring immigration down to levels society can live with:

We approved the Decreto Cutro and with it come new rules for immigration, for example up to thirty years in prison for those who steer the boats that transport the immigrants. As I see it, we are working on this big problem on behalf of the whole of Europe – and we are working well, but we have to take it step by step. We have to develop a strategy and we have to do it together with the other European countries.

UN programmatically “deeply concerned”

Supranational bodies such as the UN High Commission are programmatically “deeply concerned” about Decreto Cutro’s compatibility with international refugee and human rights legislation:

Decreto Cutro is named after the tragedy where 94 people died near Cutro in Calabria last February. Five people smugglers were arrested, the last of them – a Turk – was extradited to Italy after being caught in Graz in Austria.

Unites conservative forces

Billi also emphasised CPAC’s role in uniting conservative forces and finding common ground for various conservative movements:

The CPAC meeting strengthens the connections between conservative people from all over the world. We gain insight into each other’s positions and this enables us to develop better strategies. He also asked that the EU real-orientate its targets for reducing CO2 emissions.

According to ReMix, Simone Billi insisted that there is still room for immigration to Italy and Europe, but only for legal immigrants and real refugees.