Brussels, 24/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - What solidarity are member states prepared to give to help Italy? This country has been the destination of more than 5,000 Tunisian immigrants over the space of just a few days and is now very concerned about the possible ramifications of the events that have taken place in Libya. The Italian minister for home affairs, Roberto Maroni, put this question to his counterparts on Thursday 24 February. He also made a number of concrete demands, such as a European solidarity fund to help Southern European countries manage the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers. Above all, he asked how fellow member states intended to share the asylum and immigration burden between them. However, he did not exactly find the kind of response he was hoping for. On Thursday, the majority of the states expressed their wish to continue with the enhancement of the Frontex agency and its missions. They also sought to draw from European funds already available, before creating a new specific fund for this issue. At the end of the meeting, Maroni said that the result had been mixed and regretted that certain countries had “been totally closed” to the idea of relocating illegal immigrants and asylum seekers elsewhere in Europe. The minister said that other countries had informed Italy that “this is your problem”.
On Thursday morning, Maroni, however, said that he was afraid of a real “human catastrophe” developing in Libya and therefore called for solidarity from the member states. He said that he was no longer forecasting hundreds of thousands of refugees likely to come to Italy and the EU but “almost 1.5 million” potential candidates. These figures were provided on the previous day by Frontex and are based on the International Migrants Organisation's estimates, which referred to there being between “500,000 to 1.5 million illegal immigrants in Libya”.
These figures were, however, qualified by the director of the International Migrants Organisation, Ilkka Laitinen, who refused to say whether these people would come to Europe. This reservation and the desire to not enter into speculation was also the preferred position taken by a number of member states including Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. These countries do not entirely share Italy's sense of urgency and are not really prepared to go any further on the issue of burden sharing.
Thomas de Maizière, the German minister for home affairs, said that “last year Germany had around 40,000 asylum seekers, Sweden had 30,000, Belgium 20,000 and Italy, 7000”. He added that undoubtedly, Italy “faced a challenge but it was not in any sense of the word, submerged”. The German minister said that Italian announcements in this connection could also have a perverse effect: “there is not any huge flood of refugees for the moment and we must avoid provoking one by saying there is one”.
Belgium said that the Libyan situation needed to be monitored but that there was not any emergency situation. Melchior Wathelet, the secretary of state for asylum and migration, said that the conditions were not yet in place to go further in the sense of greater solidarity. He said that with regard to solidarity, the EU had already sent the Frontex agency's Hermes mission to Italy, which was now up and running until 31 March. For all of these countries, the urgent task remains primarily helping the countries mainly concerned by the Libyan events, such as Tunisia and Egypt, by helping them tackle the influx of refugees and enabling them to keep them in these countries. (S.P./transl.fl)