The Permanent Representative of Italy to the International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado, took part today to the opening session of the 109th session of the IOM Council, at the presence of the Director General António Manuel de Carvalho Ferreira Vitorino.
In his statement to the general debate, Ambassador Cornado reaffirmed that IOM is a strategic partner for Italy in the implementation of the common integrated strategy to manage migration flows. In countries of transit such as Libya and Niger – Ambassador Cornado said – “our common approach based on providing humanitarian support and assisted voluntary returns for migrants has been a success and we are committed to strengthening it in the future”.
The Permanent Representative of Italy then recalled the programme “CinemArena”, a mobile cinema initiative launched as far back as 2002 and now in its sixteenth year, which involves a caravan travelling through the most remote African routes in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Guinea, The Gambia, Nigeria and Sudan bringing outdoor cinema events to over 200 villages. The main objective is to promote an information campaign demonstrating the risks of irregular migration to avert the serious consequences of misinformed choices. The 2018 edition of this 2 million Euro worth project, financed by the Africa Fund, will address migration by focussing on the main countries of origin of migrants arriving by sea to Europe.
