Italy strikes deal to limit mass migration

Italy and Tunisia have struck a deal to choke off the flood of Tunisians heading to Italian shores, with Rome agreeing to give short-term residency papers to 20,000 illegal migrants but intent on deporting new arrivals.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told reporters that the measures would allow Italy "to turn off the tap" on illegal immigration.

Mr Maroni, a key member of the anti-immigrant Northern League ally in premier Silvio Berlusconi's coalition, spoke in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, after wrapping up two days of talks to nail down an agreement.

Under the accord, Mr Maroni said Italy would supply Tunisia's security forces with the "assistance and means", to stop the flourishing smuggling rings which have seen thousands cram into rickety fishing boats for the night-time crossing to Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island close to Tunisia's coast.

Most of the migrants - who pay as much as 1,400 US dollars for the journey, convinced it will bring them a better life - say they aim to eventually reach France or another European country to find jobs or family and do not intend staying in Italy.

Sky TG 24 TV, reporting from Tunis, said Mr Berlusconi's cabinet today will approve a decree allowing the 20,000 Tunisians already in Italy to receive residence permits good for six months.

Some in Mr Berlusconi's government has been pushing for such permits, arguing that once Tunisians get them, they can use the document to cross the border into France under provisions of Europe's Schengen visa-free treaty. French police have rebuffed hundreds of Tunisians in recent days at the border with Italy.

Many of the Tunisians at the French border had fled from holding camps Italy set up on the mainland to contain migrants transferred from Lampedusa, which had run out of space and shelter.