Europe will not be able to "shirk" responsibility over the immigration problem, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today during a visit to the island of Lampedusa.
"Europe will not be able to shirk (responsibility). This is not a problem for a single country but for the whole of Europe" said Berlusconi, amid a diplomatic row over what to do with thousands of Tunisian migrants who have flocked to Italy.
The island's authorities, however, on Thursday evening shirked responsibility for 171 migrants rescued just off the island by a Maltese patrol boat. Italian boats did not take part in the rescue and refused entry to the Maltese boat, even though Lampedusa was the nearest harbour to the scene.
They argued that the island was not a safe harbour since it was 'full' up with migrants and could not offer medical help. The patrol boat brought the migrants to Malta early yesterday.
Yet Italian news agency Ansa reported yesterday morning that only 72 migrants remained on the island, the rest having been repatriated or taken to Italy.
The influx continues however, and three boatloads of migrants including 244 refugees from Libya arrived on Lampedusa yesterday afternoon.
Berlusconi hailed his resolution of the immigration problem.
"You see we've kept our word," Berlusconi told a group of locals, referring to the promise he made to frustrated residents on March 30 to clear the island of all migrants within 60 hours.
Authorities had already begun transferring the newly arrived migrants off the island ahead of Berlusconi's visit, a process that in the past has taken weeks to get into gear.
"We have to receive people in a dignified way... remembering that 60 million Italians abroad are children of emigrants and we have a duty to be humane and generous," Berlusconi said.
The billionaire media tycoon was welcomed back to Lampedusa by residents following a visit last week when he promised a new golf course on the island, whose main industry is tourism.
But as the Libya crisis continued and Tunisia struggled to uphold an agreement made with Italy this week to block future departures, the boat people kept coming.
Around 26,000 undocumented migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, including some 21,000 who said they were from Tunisia, and claimed they were fleeing a dire economic situation after the political uprising in January.
Italy struck a deal with France on Friday to grant Tunisia economic aid and carry out joint patrols off the north African country's coast to block migrants heading for Europe.
The move came amid a diplomatic row over Italy's announcement Thursday that it would grant six-month residency permits to more than 20,000 migrants in an interpretation of the Schengen treaty that would allow travel to France.
The EU's Schengen visa-free zone has gradually eased internal border controls within Europe while beefing up external borders.
The announcement was greeted with concern by Germany, who said Italy's move to grant temporary residence permits was "a blow to the spirit of Schengen".
During his visit to Lampedusa, Berlusconi told reporters: "We have these problems with Germany but we are sorting it out."
In the meantime, the first temporary permits were given out to migrants.
Around 80 Tunisians who had arrived on Lampedusa in January and were being held in a reception centre in Turin were given permission to roam free today while they wait for their permits to be finalised.