Italian Red Cross President
Francesco Rocca on Tuesday called France's position on
immigration "unreasonable and excessively rigid" after that
nation blocked entry this week for a large group of African
immigrants at the France-Italy border at Ventimiglia.
The situation at Ventimiglia, where on Tuesday Italian
police forcibly removed immigrants camping out at the border,
has caused tension between Italy and France, with Italian
Premier Matteo Renzi complaining about Paris's "muscular"
approach.
This tension comes amidst the fraught backdrop of a
European Commission proposal for distributing immigrant asylum
seekers who arrived after April in Italy and Greece to other EU
nations, including France.
Rocca said France's action at Ventimiglia is "a response
born from the politics of the times, looking only at consensus
and not at the dignity of the human being".
"Italy shouldn't have to do everything by itself. It's
obvious that we're starting to think that unfortunately that's
how it's going to be. In theory there should be European
solidarity, but the signs coming from the EU aren't encouraging
at all," Rocca said.
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