(Newswire.net — June 15, 2015) — Massive inflow of migrants to Italy, mostly by sea from North Africa, caused enormous problem for this Southern EU country. Rome warns EU officials that it cannot cope with migrants under existing EU laws that didn’t predict this particular problem.
If EU continues to pressure Rome to strictly follow the International law on migrants, Italy would suffer greatly, but EU will suffer too, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said.
“If the European Council chooses solidarity, then good. If it doesn’t, we have a Plan B ready but that would be a wound inflicted on Europe,” PM Renzi said. He didn’t elaborate though on what exactly this ‘wound’ means, or revealed any specific details on plan B.
Relocating half the migrants to 28 EU states, and leaving Italy to cope with other half, is serious underestimate of the situation, Italian Prime Minister told Milan’s Corriere della Sera daily, Russia Today reported.
Giving that over 57,000 refugees have entered Italy within six months, “Redistributing just 24,000 people is almost a provocation,” Renzi argued.
Italy, which has been bearing the brunt of North African refugees, is calling on Brussels to amend the Dublin regulations, which assign most asylum seekers to their port of entry in the EU. The states have yet to reach a consensus on a migrant distribution plan, which seeks to relocate some 24,000 refugees across the 28-member countries.
Under the proposal, redistribution would be based on a quota system taking into account the size of a country’s population, the state of its economy, and its unemployment level.
The crisis “should not be underestimated,” Renzi said in an interview with Milan’s Corriere della Sera daily. “Redistributing just 24,000 people is almost a provocation,” he said. Over 57,000 migrants have entered Italy during the first half of this year alone.
Despite the fact the Schengen treaty allows free cross-border movement, France, Austria and Switzerland have refused to allow migrants in, sending them back to Italy.
“If Europe does not fulfill its own responsibilities and show solidarity, it will find a different Italy facing it,” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano warned Sunday. “Europe, signing as Europe, has to sign repatriation agreements with all the African countries.”
“I will say with great clarity: Kids, either we do equal distribution of migrants in Europe, or we organize refugee camps in Libya, or we organize a serious policy of repatriation,” Alfano told Sky TG24.
Most migrants come from Libya, where US Air Force launched early Sunday attack deploying two F-15’s to drop multiple 500t bombs on alleged Al-Qaeda leader, the New York Times reported. The Libyan government issued a statement Sunday night saying that the airstrikes killed the terrorist leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and ‘a number’ of Libyan terrorists in the eastern part of the country.
After the fall of the Gaddafi regime, with help of US lead NATO airstrike campaign, two rival governments are fighting for power in Libya, which resulted in massive migrations. According to other resources, ISIS is using this situation to transfer jihadists from Africa to EU, alegedly to organize attacks from Kosovo and Bosnia and destabilize the region.