Italy summons French envoy as migration dispute escalates

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Italy summons French envoy as migration dispute escalates

By Steve Scherer and Philip Pullella

 

Migrants takes rest on the MV Aquarius, a search and rescue ship run in partnership between SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres on their way to Spain, June 13, 2018. Karpov / SOS Mediterranee/handout via REUTERS

 

ROME (Reuters) - Italy summoned France's envoy on Wednesday and angrily rejected French criticism of its immigration policies, escalating a diplomatic standoff that is widening one of Europe's main political fault lines.

 

A day after French President Emmanuel Macron said Rome had acted with "cynicism and irresponsibility" by closing its ports to a migrant ship, Italy's economy minister cancelled a Paris meeting with his counterpart, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte weighed postponing a meeting with Macron scheduled for Friday.

 

"We have nothing to learn about generosity, voluntarism, welcoming, and solidarity from anyone," far-right Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told the Senate.

 

Salvini, who is also deputy premier and the leader of the anti-immigrant League party, called on France to apologise and said he was not prepared to take criticism from a country which regularly stopped migrants on their shared border.

 

France said it has received no formal request from Italy for an apology, and that it believed the planned meeting between Macron and Conte would go ahead.

 

Visiting western France, Macron initially did not respond to questions on the issue, but later told reporters: "We must never give in to emotions, which some people manipulate."

 

Macron suggested Rome was trying to make a high-profile break with previous governments in refusing to accept the ship instead of tackling the underlying problems of development and security in migrants' home countries and smuggling rings.

 

The row centres on the charity ship Aquarius, which both Italy and Malta refused to let dock at their ports. It was carrying 629 migrants and is now heading to Spain, which offered safe harbour, escorted by two Italian ships.

 

SOS Mediterranee and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), co-operating the Aquarius, are both well-known French charities.

France was not alone in its criticism.

 

The U.N. refugee agency's chief, Italian national Filippo Grandi, told Reuters it was "shameful" that two European countries refused to take in vulnerable migrants.

 

How Europe should share the responsibility of handling migrants trying to get into the bloc from war zones and poor countries, largely across Africa and the Middle East, remains a vexed question.

 

Many states have fallen short of their pledge, made in 2015, to take some asylum seekers from Italy and Greece - the first port of call for most migrants given their long Mediterranean coastlines - and share the cost of their care.

 

Salvini's League scored its best result in the March national election, partly on pledges to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants and halt the flow of newcomers, and has formed a coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

 

More than 1.8 million migrants have entered Europe since 2014, and Italy is now sheltering more than 170,000 asylum seekers, as well as an estimated 500,000 unregistered migrants.

 

"UNJUSTIFIABLE"

France sought to take a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said France was "fully aware of the burden that the migration pressure is placing on Italy" and that it was committed to cooperating with Rome on immigration.

 

Economy Minister Giovanni Tria spoke with his French counterpart after cancelling his meeting, a French finance ministry official said, and both agreed to reschedule their session in coming days.

 

But Italy's foreign minister, Enzo Moavero, kept up the barrage by telling a French envoy that Macron's comments were "unjustifiable" and had compromised bilateral relations.

 

A government source said Conte still did not see the right "conditions" for a Friday meeting with Macron.

 

Salvini told the Senate he was open to a possible "axis" with Germany and Austria on immigration ahead of a key EU summit at the end of June that will, in part, consider changes to EU asylum law to better share the burden of incoming migrants.

 

"With my German and Austrian colleagues... we will propose a new (immigration) initiative," Salvini said, adding that it would apply both to the EU's external borders and to how the bloc's countries manage migrants internally.

 

After meeting in Berlin, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer echoed Salvini. Kurz said Europe needed an "axis of the willing in the fight against illegal migration".

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn criticism from her own conservative party for her open-door migrant policy, adopted in 2015, which also provoked a rise in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

 

On Wednesday, she said discussions between Italy, Germany and Austria were about finding "a Europe-wide solution... Therefore I think that there must be many such kinds of cooperation, not just in this one direction".

 

As EU politicians have dithered or traded blame, refugees have continued to arrive.

 

On Wednesday morning, an Italian coast guard vessel with 937 migrants and two bodies aboard docked in Catania, Sicily, while the Aquarius headed into increasingly rough seas on its way to Valencia, where it is due to arrive on Saturday.

 

A Dutch-flagged humanitarian ship, the Sea Watch 3, was called by a U.S. Navy vessel to take on board 41 survivors and 12 bodies recovered after a shipwreck on Tuesday.

 

However, the Sea Watch is still waiting to pick them up after asking for a written guarantee that it will be allowed to dock in an Italian port.

 

(Additional reporting by Angelo Amante, Giuseppe Fonte and Crispian Balmer in Rome, Myriam Rivet, Sarah White, and Leigh Thomas in Paris, Madeline Chambers and Tom Koerkemeier in Berlin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-14

[arithai12]

Tall words from the French president's office, considering that France rejected 10,249 migrants including pregnant women and disabled in the first 5 months of 2018. They had committed to take in 9816 people, they took in 640. Italy has taken in tens of thousands.

A French ship managed by two French "volunteers" associations was rejected by Italy and Malta, so why not sail to France? Spain had already accepted it, so why not just shut up?

 

Clearly Macron won't apologize, but Salvini has got balls and now has friends in Austria, Hungary, even Germany. This has the potential to force a serious rethinking of EU's rules on immigration. Not a moment too soon.

[sikishrory]

It's easy to read things like this and think it's horrible.

Anyone whos been to italy lately can see the issue in plain sight everywhere. 

I was working in Genova and travelling to Milan on weekends. 

In the main part of Genova migrants loiter all day doing nothing but hassling and mugging people or some scam people with bracelets or other tricks. Police and Carabinieri patrol but they can't be everywhere at once. There are some rapes and many muggings in the port area. 

I would travel to Milan on weekends by train. Stopping at small towns along the way. They are in the small towns too. They don't care to buy train tickets and are happy to fight about it. 

In Milan they hang around the ticket machines waiting to scam tourists. They sit outside in groups of 20 and then at night sleep all around the station on the footpaths. Despite soldiers being stationed nearby. 

Some young girl was raped and chopped into peices not long ago. 

Suburban parks have been taken over. 

In Sicily they are at war with the mob. 

In Naples the police can't control them. 

Its one thing to read it with your coffee in the morning but the real picture is much worse. 

I'm not suprised italys government shifted right wing. People are fed up and I think the rest of Europe and the world will follow suit soon. 

 

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, arithai12 said:

Tall words from the French president's office, considering that France rejected 10,249 migrants including pregnant women and disabled in the first 5 months of 2018. They had committed to take in 9816 people, they took in 640. Italy has taken in tens of thousands.

A French ship managed by two French "volunteers" associations was rejected by Italy and Malta, so why not sail to France? Spain had already accepted it, so why not just shut up?

 

Clearly Macron won't apologize, but Salvini has got balls and now has friends in Austria, Hungary, even Germany. This has the potential to force a serious rethinking of EU's rules on immigration. Not a moment too soon.

 

Typical French hypocrisy. They expect to tell everyone else what to do but do as they please themselves. France has always been good at moaning that others aren't following EU rules or not doing this or that whilst exploiting every possible loophole for their own benefit.

 

French politicians still think France leads the EU. Germany, Austria and Italy, in accord, will seriously dent their self delusion.

[Andrew65]

The population of Nigeria is set to pass 300 million by 2050 from 178 million today, they're gonna have to live somewhere.

 

We're starting to see the over-population of the World manifest itself in these mass migrations.

[superal]

2 hours ago, sikishrory said:

It's easy to read things like this and think it's horrible.

Anyone whos been to italy lately can see the issue in plain sight everywhere. 

I was working in Genova and travelling to Milan on weekends. 

In the main part of Genova migrants loiter all day doing nothing but hassling and mugging people or some scam people with bracelets or other tricks. Police and Carabinieri patrol but they can't be everywhere at once. There are some rapes and many muggings in the port area. 

I would travel to Milan on weekends by train. Stopping at small towns along the way. They are in the small towns too. They don't care to buy train tickets and are happy to fight about it. 

In Milan they hang around the ticket machines waiting to scam tourists. They sit outside in groups of 20 and then at night sleep all around the station on the footpaths. Despite soldiers being stationed nearby. 

Some young girl was raped and chopped into peices not long ago. 

Suburban parks have been taken over. 

In Sicily they are at war with the mob. 

In Naples the police can't control them. 

Its one thing to read it with your coffee in the morning but the real picture is much worse. 

I'm not suprised italys government shifted right wing. People are fed up and I think the rest of Europe and the world will follow suit soon. 

 

I think that the majority of Europeans have had enough of this uncontrolled immigration . Italy has been hit hard without little help from  the rest of the EC . This new Italian PM is putting his own countrymen first and I for one admire him for that . Next will be repatriation and I will be interested to see how he handles that .

[Andrew65]

2 minutes ago, superal said:

I think that the majority of Europeans have had enough of this uncontrolled immigration . Italy has been hit hard without little help from  the rest of the EC . This new Italian PM is putting his own countrymen first and I for one admire him for that . Next will be repatriation and I will be interested to see how he handles that .

Probably the biggest single factor in the Brexit vote was immigration. If, when the UK voted to remain in the EEC in 1975, people would have been told that 40 years later it would be what it is today, they would have voted differently.

 

In the run-up to the Brexit vote, Frau Merckel decided to throw open the EU's doors to all-comers, I don't believe she consulted the other 27 EU nations when she did this.

 

Many people say that the Brexit Referendum campaign was about lies. The British people have been lied to by British politicians for the last 60 years about the EEC/EU/Europe, Ted Heath even admitted that he'd lied about it, and what the long-term agenda was.

[superal]

51 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Probably the biggest single factor in the Brexit vote was immigration. If, when the UK voted to remain in the EEC in 1975, people would have been told that 40 years later it would be what it is today, they would have voted differently.

 

In the run-up to the Brexit vote, Frau Merckel decided to throw open the EU's doors to all-comers, I don't believe she consulted the other 27 EU nations when she did this.

 

Many people say that the Brexit Referendum campaign was about lies. The British people have been lied to by British politicians for the last 60 years about the EEC/EU/Europe, Ted Heath even admitted that he'd lied about it, and what the long-term agenda was.

What surprises me are the reactions , that come from the do-gooders and Brexit remainers , when stating real concerns for your home country and retaining our identity , customs , traditions and standards of living  . The minute one tries to give a patriotic opinion he is criticised for being  racist , ignorant or phobic . 

You are so right with regards to 40 years ago . However many folk are beginning to realise that the UK government is controlled by corporate businesses who act to maximise their profits and Joe Soap is the least of their concerns . I was pleased when the UK voted to leave and now other nations are beginning to lean that way . The whole question of immigration and the logic behind it are bewildering . Charity begins at home they say but not for the UK government who do not care for the retired UK nationalist who has worked all of his life for a frugal state pension but are happy to provide economic immigrants with housing and many financial benefits . No wonder the UK is such a popular place to gain entry to for the immigrant .

[mcambl61]

It's been going on in the USA for many decades and we are sick of it. Countries need to be able to sort themselves out, they have been given billions from other nations and have done nothing for the people

[3NUMBAS]

migrants have turned Paris into a cesspit ,.metro trains dont stop at some stations as the area is now too dangerous to stop at.so macron wants a few more

[roquefort]

"Salvini told the Senate he was open to a possible "axis" with Germany and Austria"

 

Oh dear, unfortunate choice of words from Salvini. But one can understand the frustration of the Italians and many other European countries at the uncontrolled flow of economic migrants into Europe. This issue will destroy the EU, possibly even before the UK leaves.

[llz]

On 6/14/2018 at 6:51 AM, Baerboxer said:

 

Typical French hypocrisy. They expect to tell everyone else what to do but do as they please themselves. France has always been good at moaning that others aren't following EU rules or not doing this or that whilst exploiting every possible loophole for their own benefit.

 

French politicians still think France leads the EU. Germany, Austria and Italy, in accord, will seriously dent their self delusion.

Please do not lump all French citizens together with the spoiled arrogant brat who is now our president. He was elected by a minority of registered voters only because of his good looks, big money coming from banks and big companies, and an incredible campaigning to discredit his contenders.

 

What he said to the italian government put many of us to shame, he would better joining Italy, Austria and Germany to really end massive and uncontrolled immigration which is a lethal poison for the whole of Europe.

 

 

[wabothai]

On 6/14/2018 at 9:03 AM, superal said:

What surprises me are the reactions , that come from the do-gooders and Brexit remainers , when stating real concerns for your home country and retaining our identity , customs , traditions and standards of living  . The minute one tries to give a patriotic opinion he is criticised for being  racist , ignorant or phobic . 

You are so right with regards to 40 years ago . However many folk are beginning to realise that the UK government is controlled by corporate businesses who act to maximise their profits and Joe Soap is the least of their concerns . I was pleased when the UK voted to leave and now other nations are beginning to lean that way . The whole question of immigration and the logic behind it are bewildering . Charity begins at home they say but not for the UK government who do not care for the retired UK nationalist who has worked all of his life for a frugal state pension but are happy to provide economic immigrants with housing and many financial benefits . No wonder the UK is such a popular place to gain entry to for the immigrant .

The UK is popular just for the reason they speak English, for the rest no difference with the rest of Europe.

[mcambl61]

On 6/17/2018 at 4:03 PM, llz said:

Please do not lump all French citizens together with the spoiled arrogant brat who is now our president. He was elected by a minority of registered voters only because of his good looks, big money coming from banks and big companies, and an incredible campaigning to discredit his contenders.

 

What he said to the italian government put many of us to shame, he would better joining Italy, Austria and Germany to really end massive and uncontrolled immigration which is a lethal poison for the whole of Europe.

 

 

well said sir. exactly correct, the EU is doomed, thanks to the leftist multicultural nonsense