French Interior Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday that France will not allow asylum
seekers to cross its border with Italy, arguing it was up to
Rome to process their requests.
"We've returned some 6,000 migrants to Italy (since the
start of the year)," Cazeneuve said.
"They must not pass. The Schengen rules must be respected".
He said Italy must "agree to set up centres" to distinguish
legitimate refugees from economic migrants.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi replied that the "muscular
stance of certain ministers of friendly countries (on the
migrant crisis) goes in the opposite direction" from "Plan A,
which is to all face the issue together".
He said Italy "must shoulder the burden and is doing so,
it's saving hundreds of lives and will keep doing so".
"A solid country such as ours can't allow France to have
ships in the Mediterranean and leave (migrants) in Italy," Renzi
went on.
"No national egoism (should be allowed to) look away," he
told a press conference at the premier's office.
Renzi added his plan B on immigration is Italy doing it all
on its own.
"The EU is at a crossroads," he said. "Plan A is it thinks
like a community and solves the problem as such...plan B is we
do it alone, and Italy faces up to the issue like the great
country it is".
The Commission has proposed relocating 40,000 asylum
seekers already in Italy and Greece to other parts of the Union,
following a mandatory quota system.
That plan has divided the EU, with many states, including
France and Germany, coming out against the obligation to receive
the asylum seekers.
Renzi, on the other hand, says the proposal does not go far
enough.
"We believe we have found a good balance," Bertaud said of
the proposal, which will be examined by EU interior ministers on
Tuesday before being discussed at the June 25-26 summit of
European leaders.
"We want the relocation system to be mandatory".
The EC proposal is part of its Agenda on Migration which
also features the tripling of funding for migrant rescue
operations in the southern Mediterranean and the launch of a
naval operation to target human traffickers.
Renzi's talk of a plan B was seen as a challenge to his
fellow EU leaders, with the migrant emergency visibly becoming
difficult to handle and asylum seekers camped out at train
stations in Rome and Milan and in the city of Ventimiglia on the
border with France.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein
on Monday urged the European Union to take "brave steps" on
immigration.
The EU has the capacity to "provide asylum...to one
million refugees fleeing wars in Syria and elsewhere," Hussein
said.
The commissioner went on to blast the "frequent
demonization of migrants in countries that enjoy peace and
wellbeing...I ask all of you to take a stand against this very
dangerous tendency," he said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
