As many 24,000 asylum seekers,
depending on "changeable" figures, could leave Italy under
proposed quotas being developed by the European Commission, a
source told ANSA Friday.
Combined with Greece, the total could be 40,000 refugees
transferred, said a source.
A figure of 36,000 was earlier suggested.
None of the figures are final.
"Roughly 60%" of asylum seekers now in Italy would be sent
elsewhere in Europe under the EC proposal, a source said.
Precise numbers depend on "changeable" figures, the source
added.
EU migrant quotas would likely take some pressure off
front-line Mediterranean countries like Italy, Greece and Malta
but some other European nations are balking at imposed quotas,
creating significant controversy.
Meanwhile, Premier Matteo Renzi on Friday pledged that
Italy will raise a migrant boat that went down off Libya in
mid-April claiming 800 lives, to make sure that "Europe does not
close its eyes to the dead" in the migrant emergency in the
Mediterranean.
Renzi was speaking at a rally in Salerno for his Democratic
Party's candidate in May 31 regional elections, Vincenzo De
Luca.
The disaster off the Libyan coast on April 20 has spurred
international efforts to ease the emergency including proposed
migrant quotas - which however have met fresh resistance - and a
proposed Italian-led naval mission to destroy smugglers' boats.
"The idea of us pretending not to see that boat just
doesn't sit well with me," Renzi said.
"We are tasked with giving them burial...showing Europe
that you mustn't close your eyes".
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