Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi accused European Union countries late on Tuesday of backtracking on commitments to accept asylum seekers and said they must show they were serious about wanting to solve the current Mediterranean migrant crisis.
The EU agreed a naval mission on Monday to target gangs smuggling migrants from Libya, but parts of a broader plan to deal with the influx began to unravel in a row over national quotas over refugee applicants.
Italy, which has borne the brunt of trying to save migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to flee war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, pushed its partners to hold an EU summit last month to seek common solutions to the problem.
The European Commission proposed a quota system for states to share the burden of housing hundreds of thousands of people while their claims for asylum are processed.
The EU has accepted the problem is not only Italy’s but now they have to accept the quota system
At present, a few states, notably Germany and Sweden, take the major share.
However, several countries have said they are against the quota proposal, a position which Renzi said risked undermining the region’s whole strategy on immigration.
“The EU has accepted the problem is not only Italy’s, it has agreed to send ships but now they have to accept the quota system,” he told Italian state television broadcaster RAI.
“Britain immediately said it was against and was pulling out ... now France and Spain have posed problems about the methods of calculating the quotas.” Renzi said that by aiming to reach an agreement on the issue by the time of a regular EU summit to be held on June 25-26, the EU was “taking it easy” and showed no sense of urgency.
“We’ve got a month to understand if there is a serious agreement or if it’s just waffle,” he said.
Around 51,000 migrants have entered Europe by crossing the Mediterranean this year, with 30,500 going via Italy. About 1,800 have drowned in the attempt, the UN refugee agency says, although no one knows the exact figure.