UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in Italy discussing migration strategies with PM Giorgia Meloni. He expressed interest in Italy's significant reduction in illegal crossings and its controversial asylum processing deal with Albania, while facing backlash from within his party regarding collaboration with Meloni's right-wing government.
Starmer's visit follows a dramatic drop in migrant crossings to Italy, attributed to agreements with North African nations. The UK government is under pressure to address rising small boat crossings in the Channel, prompting Starmer to explore Italy's approach to migration management.
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Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB QC MP is a British politician and former lawyer who has served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015.
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea.
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a sovereign country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy is located in south-central Europe, and is considered part of western Europe.
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Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisi
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Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, covering 163,610 square kilometres. Its northernmost point, Cape Angela, is also the northernmost point on the African continent.
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Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
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Rishi Sunak is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2022.
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Matteo Salvini is an Italian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of the Interior from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019. He has also been Federal Secretary of the Northern League since December 2013. He has been a Senator in
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Rwanda, formerly Ruanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. One of the smallest countries on the African mainland, its capital city is Kigali.
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km² and an estimated total population of about 447 million.
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Olaf Scholz is a German politician serving as Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor under Chancellor Angela Merkel since 14 March 2018.
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France and links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end.
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
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Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization with its headquarters in the United Kingdom focused on human rights. The organization says it has more than eight million members and supporters around the world.
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the northwestern coast of the European mainland.
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Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician and the president of the European Commission since 1 December 2019. She served in the federal government of Germany from 2005 to 2019 as the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel's cabinet.
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Kais Saied is a Tunisian politician, jurist and former lecturer serving as the fifth President of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019.
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists.