Critics lambast Giorgia Meloni’s ‘failed’ strategy after migrant influx

Haruna Manneh shudders at the memory of the journey he took to reach this far-flung outpost of Europe.

Starting out in March from his family home in Gambia, he travelled through West Africa and across the Sahara to Tunisia, where he paid smugglers 50,000 Gambian dalasi (£670) to take him by small boat across the Mediterranean to the island of Lampedusa.

“In Mali and Algeria, I was very scared. In each place we reached, we worked to earn money. We washed dishes, we cleaned houses. When you see that your family doesn’t...