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They need to copy-paste Australia's tactics. Offshore processing! Alas Italy is bereft of unpleasant countries like Papua New Guinea where refugees can be sent - but it gets the job done. Incentives work.
The real problem isn't anything to do with the Refugee Convention or similar - Australia was fully capable of ignoring the human rights lawyers and similar. The EU is much more powerful than some university centre for refugee law. I'd bet all my assets that the EU would rain hellfire and desolation upon an Australian solution in Italy. They actually have teeth, they have leverage over Italy's borrowing.
I see this as calling the bluff in a De Santis/Martha's Vineyard sense. If they are truly not economic migrants and are in danger of persecution then they should be reasonably happy to be placed in a safe country as compared to a first world one. If they're just there for economic advantage then they can apply through formal immigration channels.
Clearly the massive drop in boat arrivals in Australia after implementation of this policy makes it obvious they weren't just trying to avoid persecution.
Interestingly the Australian government made the claim that deterring refugee boats saved lives due to mysterious hull breaches when approaching the coast or the coast guard.
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It has enough small islands in the Mediterranean that can be used to house detention camps for the migrants, Nauru style. For example, there's Linosa, which is about 1/4 of Nauru by area and has only 430 inhabitants. Give them 1mln Euro each, and you get a nice uninhabited island with a real volcano, a perfect place for a detention camp.
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Didn't the British plan to send refugees to Rwanda and that got scuttled?
Israel gets rid of their infiltrators by sending them to Rwanda.
IIRC the British deal got scuttled.
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