Migrant arrivals to Lampedusa not sustainable says Sunak

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 16 - The irregular arrival of migrants and refugees to Lampedusa is unsustainable and immoral, British prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Saturday.
    "(Former Conservative prime minister Margaret) Thatcher understood that ideas are only important if they can be implemented," Conservative Sunak told the Atreju political festival of Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in Rome.
    "She never backed down even when the fight was hard, and today we have to apply Thatcher's radicalism to illegal immigration," he continued.
    "Our opponents want to put their heads in the sand and let the problem go away on its own, but it doesn't work that way," said Sunak.
    "Go to Lampedusa, where 50% of immigrants arrived this year: it is no longer sustainable, it is not right and it is immoral," he added.
    Sunak also said the controversial Britain-Rwanda migrant agreement and the recent deal between Italy and Albania both aimed to "disrupt the business model" of human traffickers.
    "If this requires us to update our laws and have conversations at the international level to create a framework on political asylum so be it, because if we don't manage this problem today the migrant boats will continue to arrive," he insisted.
    "We have to make the deterrent work.
    "If migrants come to Italy or Britain illegally they will not be allowed to stay, it must be clear," he added. (ANSA).