Italy, like Greece, cannot go
it alone on migrant reception in the Mediterranean, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
Speaking as Berlin opened its doors to 500,000 refugees,
the UNCHR said there would be 850,000 asylum requests from
Mediterranean-crossing migrants this year and next, and dioceses
around Italy braced to answer Pope Francis's call to take in
refugees, Merkel said Italy and Greece should not be left alone
to deal with the record number of migrants reaching their
shores.
She also said that a system of mandatory refugee quotas
is needed across the European Union.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants have reached
southern Europe this year, as people flee conflict in countries
such as Syria. Germany has taken a more open approach than other
European Union member states, leading to growing tensions in the
28-member bloc.
"Greece and Italy cannot host all the refugees that arrive
on their coasts," Merkel said during a joint news conference
with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Berlin.
She reaffirmed that a mandatory quota system was necessary,
but added that there was still no agreement in sight.
"We are unfortunately very far from this and we think
something has to change," she said.
Merkel also said that "seeing the developments of the
civil war in Syria, we can say that the Dublin mechanisms" on
receiving migrants and refugees "aren't working".
Meanwhile Italy's interior ministry sent out a circular to
prefects asking them to plan to receive another 20,000 migrants
and refugees.
The distribution is on a regional basis which will have to
defined in a few days' time.
The 20,000 migrants will be distributed on a "fair" basis
according to an agreement between Rome and Italy's regions,
official sources said.
A few days ago the interior ministry official in charge of
immigration, Prefect Mario Morcone, acknowledged there might be
tensions in some areas like Veneto and Lombardy - "where there
is more political ferment", partly whipped up by the
anti-immigrant Northern League.
But Morcone urged local communities to be "protagonists of
this new season of reception".
Also Tuesday, EU sources told ANSA that EU member states
that opt out of taking their allocated quota of asylum seekers
under a proposed mandatory redistribution scheme to relieve
countries in the front line of the current migrant crisis will
have to pay a fine equivalent to 0.002% of GDP.
Countries will only be able to opt out for a year, the
sources added.
The plans for the mandatory mechanism for redistributing
160,000 migrants seeking international protection across EU
countries are to be presented officially by the President of the
European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to the European
Parliament on Wednesday.
Under the scheme, 39,000 asylum seekers will be relocated
away from Italy while 31,000 will be assigned to Germany, 24,000
to France and 15,000 to Spain.
Meanwhile the AS Roma soccer club launched a campaign
urging all the world's clubs and fans to support agencies that
help migrants and refugees.
The Football Cares initiative is aimed at helping the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Save The
Children, the International Rescue Committee and the Red Cross,
Roma Chairman James Pallotta said in illustrating the initiative
Tuesday and giving it a cheque of over half a million euros.
Of that sum, 250,000 comes from the club, 75,000 from
investors in it, and 250,000 is a personal donation from
Pallotta.
Fiorentina, Bologna and Torino, as well as the Lega Calcio
of Serie A and that of Serie B, have already said they will back
the scheme, and more clubs from Europe and America are expected
to join this week.
"We have already actively participated in Italy in several
projects helping refugees," said the Boston businessman
"But after seeing the images coming from Europe and the
Middle East in the last week we thought that Roma should do a
lot more and so we have accepted this new challenge and this
responsibility," he said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said
Tuesday that around 400,000 refugees fleeing across the
Mediterranean will make asylum requests this year and there
could be at least a further 450,000 next year - making a grand
total of at least 850,000.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said emergency
measures taken by the European Union to tackle its migration
crisis are not enough and a wide-ranging long-term strategy is
needed,.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Paris,
Gentiloni said that long-term strategy should be based on a
shared European idea of asylum rights and repatriation policies.
"It's positive that Europe is moving on this issue, but the
Italian government is convinced that the emergency measures are
not enough," said Gentiloni.
"One shouldn't underestimate the long-lasting nature of
this crisis," he said, adding that he expected it to continue
for several years.
Italy remains actively involved in international coalition
efforts against Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria and
Iraq, Gentiloni said at the conference.
Commenting on France's recent decision to begin
surveillance flights in Syria, Gentiloni said "everyone chooses
their own methods and priorities".
"We don't discuss those made by others, but we are aware and
proud of our own," he said during the conference on victims of
violence in the Middle East.
Also Tuesday, the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference
(CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said Tuesday that the handling
of the migrant and refugee crisis "is a defeat for the whole
world, either we show solidarity or everything sinks".
Bagnasco, who has backed Pope Francis's pleas for all
dioceses to open their doors to refugees, was speaking at a
suffrage mass for the Madonna at Recco near Genoa.
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