North Africa crisis exposes EU 'taboos' on migration

By Alvise Armellini Feb 25, 2011, 8:55 GMT

Brussels - Calls for solidarity in the European Union - arguably the most successful international cooperation exercise in modern history - are common.

But a looming migration crisis from North Africa - with Libya's descent into chaos potentially unlocking the main immigration gateway from Sub-Saharan Africa into Europe - is testing the limits of such solidarity.

Italy, which has seen over 5,000 people arrive from Tunisia since that country's autocratic regime was toppled in mid-January, has called for European Union partners to help it face the massive influx it predicts will face if Libya's dictator, Moamer Gaddafi, is toppled.

'I ask Europe to (adopt) all the necessary measures to deal with a catastrophic humanitarian emergency, we cannot be left alone,' Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said as he arrived in Brussels on Thursday for a meeting with EU counterparts.

His warnings were largely met with skepticism by Northern European colleagues.

'So far there have been no streams of migrants, we shouldn't talk them into existence,' said Germany's Thomas de Maiziere.

'We have to wait until we see such a massive influx,' Sweden's Tobias Billstrom agreed.

Maroni claimed that the EU's border patrol agency, FRONTEX, had estimated that there were up to 1.5 million EU-bound migrants in Libya. This came after Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, had talked of up to 300,000 potential arrivals.

In fact, FRONTEX director Ilkka Laitinen told Brussels journalists on Wednesday that that figure simply referred to the number of foreigners living in Libya.

As a result, some EU ministers accused Maroni of crying wolf.

'We should not get involved in scaremongering and playing with silly numbers,' Belgium's state secretary for asylum, Melchior Wathelet, protested.

'Last year, Germany took in about 40,000 asylum-seekers, little Sweden 30,000, Belgium 20,000, Italy 7,000. Italy is facing a challenge, but it's a long way from being overloaded,' de Maiziere noted.

'We think that 5,000 in Lampedusa is a figure which Italy can handle alone,' Austria's Maria Fekter insisted.

'A country of 60 million should not have problems in accommodating a few thousand migrants. Besides, I don't remember Italy offering to take up people when Malta was facing an immigration crisis,' an EU diplomat who asked not to be named noted drily.

That left Maroni's 'burden sharing' demand - having migrants distributed across the EU, easing the load on Mediterranean-facing countries such as Italy, Malta, Cyprus or Spain - a dead letter.

'It is taboo, I don't think we will go anywhere,' an Italian diplomat predicted ahead of the Brussels talks.

'I think it would be the right thing but I don't have any illusions,' Maroni himself acknowledged on Thursday.

Instead, Italy is expected to make do with a FRONTEX mission - consisting of around 20-25 officials helping to screen migrants in Lampedusa, and partial reimbursement for Italian boat patrol activities in the Mediterranean.

In addition, the EU's executive, the European Commission, is looking at redirecting some EU funding towards the emergency, but assistance is unlikely to match Maroni's request for a 100-million-euro (138-million-dollar) grant.

That is unlikely to placate Maroni's fellow members of the Northern League, an anti-immigration party which supports the centre-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Northern League leader Umberto Bossi has suggested that Italy could compensate for the supposed lack of EU help by letting migrants escape through the bloc's border-free Schengen system.

If migrants were to arrive, Bossi said Wednesday, 'we will send them to France and Germany.'