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Italy hopes forcible removal prompts EU to act over Mediterranean migrant crisis Italy hopes forced removals will prompt EU to act over migrant crisis
(35 minutes later)
Italian police have forcibly removed a few dozen African migrants who have been camping out for days next to the French border in hopes of continuing their journeys farther north. Police on Italy’s border with France have forcibly removed about a hundred migrants who were stranded in the Italian city of Ventimiglia and denied entry into France, escalating tensions between the two countries over the free movement of migrants to northern Europe.
The violent scenes on the coast are being used by Italy to demonstrate that Europe needs to do more to relieve the migrant crisis. The chaotic scene in Ventimiglia – the Italian city where migrants have been sleeping on rocks overlooking the French border – was called a “punch in the face to all the European countries that want to close their eyes” to the migrant crisis, said Angelino Alfano, Italy’s interior minister.
Some of the people being removed held on to signposts, while others tried to resist being loaded on to a Red Cross bus brought in to clear them from the Ventimiglia border crossing. Those on the rocks jutting out into the sea were left alone, with police apparently unwilling to move into a more treacherous location. Some of the migrants - who are mostly from Sudan and Eritrea - were resisting the police and trying to hang on to signposts in their desperate attempt to make their way across the border, according to media reports. They were loaded on to a bus and brought to the city’s train station, where the Red Cross is leading assistance efforts. Similar temporary aid stations are popping up all over Italy, including in train stations in Milan and Rome.
Related: Italy threatens to give Schengen visas to migrants as EU ministers meetRelated: Italy threatens to give Schengen visas to migrants as EU ministers meet
The people, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, have been camped out for five days after French border police refused to let them enter the country. They have refused to leave, saying they want to continue to find family members further north. In some cases, migrant families in Ventimiglia making the trek to northern Europe from Italy have been separated, with some successfully making their way to Paris and beyond, while others have been turned back to Italy.
The Italian interior minster, Angelino Alfano, arriving on Tuesday at a meeting of his EU counterparts in Luxembourg, said the scenes from Ventimiglia were a “slap in the face to Europe” and proof that migrants and refugees do not want to stay in Italy. Tensions between Rome and Paris have risen dramatically after France closed the border to the migrants amid accusations that Italy was not properly processing the refugees.
Italy, which has borne the brunt of rescuing refugees and migrants at sea and providing initial assistance, is demanding that other European countries take them and let them apply for asylum elsewhere. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said some 6,000 migrants had been returned to Italy so far.
Under EU rules, those arriving in Italy are supposed to be fingerprinted and apply for asylum there as it is the first EU country where they land. France’s position has been rejected as untenable by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, who said on Monday that it ran contrary to a European agreement that the ongoing migrant crisis was a shared burden.
The French interior ministry has reinforced border controls over the past few weeks owing to an influx of people. Austria also increased its border surveillance, though those measures ended on Monday. The issue is likely to be at the top of the agenda when Renzi meets with France’s president François Hollande on Sunday. He is also set to meet with David Cameron in Milan on Wednesday, when the British prime minister visits the expo fair.
“If Europe wants to be Europe, it has to take on this problem as a single bloc. This is Plan A. The muscular stance of some ministers of some friendly countries goes in the opposite direction,” Renzi said on Monday.
He added: “If it’s Italy’s problem because Europe closes its eyes, then Italy will do it on its own. But in that case it would be a defeat not for Italy, but for the very idea of Europe.”
Ventimiglia’s mayor, Enrico Ioculano, who said he was not warned about the police actions, said a “political solution” was required to end the stalemate. In Italy, the humanitarian crisis has been made even more difficult to navigate because of the staunch opposition against Renzi - and anti-immigrant fervour - among some rightwing governors, which has put pressure on local officials.
Ioculano, the 28-year-old mayor of Ventimiglia, told journalists that he had sought some regional assistance to help the city cope with the influx of migrants, but said the request was denied by the conservative governor of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, who has said the area would not offer any humanitarian assistance to migrants.
Governors in Lombardy and Veneto have also rejected a proposal by Renzi’s government in Rome for all Italian regions to accept some of the migrants who are landing on the country’s shore in the south. In Veneto, the freshly re-elected governor Luca Zaia has ordered all local authorities to remove migrant housing and other dwellings from areas that are close to tourist destinations, saying their presence would have a “devastating” impact on tourism in the region around Venice.