Ouyahia: “Italy Counts 40.000 Algerians Of Whom 900 Live Illegally On Its Soil”

Italy counts less than 900 Algerian illegal immigrants on its soil, Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, said.

“Combating illegal immigration would require the reduction of its sources and the inclusion of economic development within the anti-terrorism plans in the Sahel region”.

Ouyahia explained, in a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, on Monday, at Algiers International Conference Center, Abdellatif Rahal, that the deportation of Algerian illegal immigrants, whom he described as undesirable in foreign countries, is a continuous process and there is no urgent plan.

“Italy counts over 40,000 Algerians, who are residing legally on the Italian territory and less than 900 illegal immigrants. The file of illegal immigration took only 10 minutes of talks with the Italian official”.

“Algeria receives its children abroad who reside in a very illegal manner, provided that there an evidence of the irregular presence on the one hand and when it is proved that they are Algerian on the other hand”.

As for the possible solutions to the phenomenon of illegal immigration, Ouyahia confirmed that its sources should be dried up, especially in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel countries, whether famine, economy or security problems.

“Algeria is always demanding to accompany anti-terrorism plans in the Sahel region with economic development programs”.

“Illegal immigration solutions include economic development plans rather than setting up assembly camps, in reference to Europe’s proposal to set up camps for the illegal immigrants in Algeria and Morocco”.

“Everyone knows our position on the camps. Algeria will participate in the Italian Palermo summit on Libya and appointing the head of the delegation is one of the president’s powers”.

“Algerian delegation, which will participate in the Palermo meeting on Libya, will work alongside the Italian authorities to make the symposium a success and bring about a peaceful solution to Libya, that will culminate in satisfactory results”.

“Algeria’s central principle in the Libyan crisis is to contain the issue by the Libyans and to support the efforts of the United Nations”.

In turn, the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, said that Algeria is the first economic partner of his country in Africa and the Middle East with trade exchanges worth more than 8 billion dollars.

According to the Italian official, Rome wants to make more investments in Algeria as part of the government’s plan to diversify the economy.

Conte described the cooperation of the two countries in the migration files as positive asserting that there are efforts to deport the Algerian illegal immigrants in Italy and activate them on the ground.