(Politico) Some European Union countries, led by Italy, are pushing to normalize ties with Syria in order to facilitate deportations of migrants as mainstream leaders look to replicate anti-immigrant far-right parties’ surging popularity across the continent.
“It is necessary to review the European Union Strategy for Syria and to work with all actors, to create the conditions for Syrian refugees to return to their homeland in a voluntary, safe and sustainable way,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday to the Italian Senate ahead of the EU leaders’ meeting.
After dictator Bashar Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters in 2011 spiraled into a bloody civil war, his government was accused of using chemical weapons on its own people and was accused of torture.
