Italy took a formal step to protest
the migrant emergency with Brussels Wednesday and said that
foreign ships may be stopped from docking in Italian ports
unless the situation improves.
With over 12,000 migrants landing in the last 48 hours, Rome
said the situation, with its impact on social and political
life, was "unsustainable" and "at the limit".
Italy is taking a formal step with the European Commission in
relation to the large numbers of asylum seekers landing on its
shores, ANSA sources said.
Over 10,000 asylum seekers arrived in Italy from Saturday to
Tuesday and some 12,000 have arrived in the last 48 hours.
The government gave its ambassador to the EU, Maurizio
Massari, a mandate to formally raise the issue with European
Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos,
the sources said.
Massari went on to tell Avramopoulos that the situation
regarding asylum seekers landing in Italy was at the
limit, diplomatic sources said.
Massari said the situation was having an impact on the
country's social and political life and, as a result, it would
be difficult to allow new arrivals, the sources said.
Rome's message to the Commission is that Italy is facing a
serious situation and Europe cannot look the other way.
It is unsustainable, Italian diplomatic sources said, that
all rescue ships should land in Italy.
If the situation does not change, they said, Italy may be
forced to deny permission to dock to non-Italian-flagged ships
or ones that are not part of European missions.
The Italian government is in fact mulling whether to deny
docking privileges in Italian ports to ships rescuing migrants
off Libya that are flying non-Italian flags, government sources
said.
They reiterated it was now "unsustainable" that all the
vessels operating in the Mediterranean should bring rescued
asylum seekers to Italy.
Italy, the sources said, will continue to save human lives at
sea as it has always done over recent years, but it is no longer
sustainable that the whole burden of migrant reception should
fall on Italy.
Rescues and reception cannot be separated and therefore the
contribution of the EU must not be limited to sea rescues, the
sources said.
A possible block on Italian ports would concern ships
operated by non-governmental organisations operating in the
central Mediterranean, sources indicated.
But it would not for the moment affect naval units inserted
in the mission of Frontex, the EU border control agency, and in
EUNAVFOR MED, the operation that is tasked with combatting human
traffickers in the Sicilian Channel and in which 25 European
nations are taking part, the sources said.
Ex-premier and ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD)
leader Matteo Renzi backs the new hard line on migrants and the
EU taken by Premier Paolo Gentiloni and Interior Minister Marco
Minniti, PD sources said.
The sources welcomed the formal diplomatic step on migrants
taken by the government with the European Commission, noting
that Renzi on Tuesday himself called the situation
"unsustainable".
They also pointed out that the PD leader's positions on Italy
getting more help in coping with the migrant emergency were
"well-known".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
