UK home secretary to visit Italy to discuss stopping migrants arriving on boats

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Home Secretary, James Cleverly, is visiting Italy as part of the U.K. government’s efforts to crack down on migrants arriving by small boats.

Cleverly will meet his Italian counterpart, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, and discuss how Italy and Britain can expand their joint work to stop migrants in north Africa from making often perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea, officials said Tuesday.

Cleverly will also visit Lampedusa, the southernmost island of Italy which receives the majority of migrants arriving in the country. In September, some 7,000 people arrived from Tunisia on the tiny island in a span of roughly 24 hours, overwhelming the local migrant reception center.

The visit comes as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stepped up his calls for the U.K. Parliament to approve his plan to deport some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.