Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro
said Tuesday that Italy had "no intention of conducting
unilateral moves" on the migrant crisis and said that Vienna
should "tone things down".
Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka was quoted by
Bild as saying Tuesday that Vienna was ready to close its border
with Italy at the Brenner Pass within a day if migrant arrivals
get too high.
The tension comes after the Sunday Times reported Italy was
considering giving 200,000 migrants humanitarian visas to travel
in Europe - a report denied by Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano.
Giro told ANSA in a telephone conversation that relations
between States should not be endangered by "pre-election
polemics". Austria is holding elections on October 16.
He described the threat to close the Brenner Pass as
"surreal".
"There is no increase in the number of migrants, as they have
said themselves several times," Giro told ANSA.
Italy has requested more help from its EU partners, saying
its ability to cope with the Mediterranean asylum-seeker crisis
is at the limit.
It has proposed taking asylum seekers saved in the southern
Mediterranean to ports in other EU states, not just Italy, but
the idea has not won backing from other countries.
At the weekend the European Commission and EU border agency
Frontex approved a code of conduct drafted by Italy for ships
run by non-governmental organisations rescuing migrants in the
central Mediterranean off Libya.
The code of conduct sets 11 rules.
These include a ban on phoning "to facilitate the departure
of boats carrying migrants", the obligation to allow police
aboard and a requirement to have a technical certification to
carry out rescues.
Those who refuse to sign the code may not get authorisation
to access Italian ports.
The first rule is the "absolute prohibition" for
humanitarian ships to enter Libyan waters, which can only be
reached "if there is a clear danger for human life at sea".
UNICEF said Monday the new code would endanger "very many
lives, especially of children".
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