EU to help Italy stem seaborne illegal immigration

The European Union is ready to help Italy stem a seaborne influx of illegal immigrants, the bloc's justice chief said yesterday.

Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato wrote to EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini on Thursday seeking help after more than 2,000 illegal migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa, off Sicily, in the previous 15 days. "Solidarity... requires a joint initiative from our part, considering the important number of illegal migrants who have reached Sicily's coast and continue to do so daily," Mr Frattini said in reply yesterday.

Mr Frattini said experts from the European Commission and the EU's Frontex border agency would go to Italy to see what action the EU could take.

This could include advancing the launch of a sea patrol in the Mediterranean and increasing cooperation with Libya. The EU sea patrol in central Mediterranean has been planned since January.

A Frontex spokesman said no start date had been fixed.

"We aim for August, but we do not know yet," Michal Parzyszek said. "We are now talking with Greece, Italy and Malta about the details of the operational plan."

Illegal migrants to these countries came from Libya, Mr Parzyszek said. Mr Frattini noted last week that Libya had not yet agreed that sea patrols could enter its territorial waters.

Frontex is preparing another sea patrol to stop illegal migrants reaching Spain's Canary islands. That mission will start early nexth month, Spain's Secretary of State for Security Antonio Camacho said on Monday.

The European Commission has proposed that the EU's 25 member states create a permanent rapid reaction force to deal with sudden major influxes of illegal migrants.