The African Union expressed their outrage about reported comments by Salvini regarding “slaves” last week and called on him to retract his statements.
“The African Union Commission expresses dismay at the comments made by the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Matteo Salvini, at a recent conference in Vienna at which he likened African immigrants to slaves,” the AU said in a statement. “It is the view of the African Union that name-calling will not resolve the migration challenges facing Africa and Europe…
“In the interests of constructive engagement on the migration debate between the two continents, the African Union requests the Italian Deputy Prime Minister to retract his derogatory statement about African migrants and further urge Italy to emulate and support other European Union member states, like Spain, which have extended support and protection to migrants in distress, irrespective of their origin and legal status, before their admission status is determined”.
“There is nothing to apologise for,” Salvini told a press conference at the interior ministry. “I deny (making) any equation between immigrants and slaves.
“On the contrary, my statements in Vienna were to defend migrants, who some want to use as slaves.
“If some people want to think badly (that’s up to them), perhaps that was a mistake in the French translation”. Salvini was referring to a debate in which Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn last week became vulgar.
Salvini reportedly said that Europe does not need new slaves to make up for low birth rates.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday warned the European Union that it must address the problem of migrant arrivals if it wants to avoid more tense standoffs with Rome in the future. “If we don’t want another Diciotti case, we need a European response,” Conte told a press conference after meeting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in Rome ahead of an EU summit in Salzburg.
He was referring to Salvini’s refusal to allow over 100 migrants saved at sea to disembark from Diciotti Coast Guard ship during a standoff with the EU.
Conte called on the EU to make more investments in North Africa as part of cooperation to stop migrant flows.
He also repeated his call for an overhaul of the Sophia naval mission in the Mediterranean, which Rome says currently puts too much of the burden of rescued migrants on Italy.