Brussels forced to spend MILLIONS more on tackling migrant crisis to quell Italian fury
EU BOSSES have finally promised to do more to help Italy with its growing refugee crisis.
By SIMON OSBORNE
Express.co.uk
Wed, Jul 5, 2017
Rome will get more money, greater co-operation and a curb on charity rescue vessels to tackle the “unsustainable” influx of migrants.
The European Commission laid out a wide-ranging plan including a £40m project to support the Libyan authorities and coastguard, and £30.7m to help Italy deal with a 19 per cent increase in migrant arrivals since the start of the year.
It also promised to help Italy draw up a “code of conduct” for charities operating search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean amid fears their boats attract migrants and people-smugglers.
Commission chiefs also called on EU member states to “do what they agreed before” in relocating migrants.
The move comes after Italy threatened to close its ports to foreign vessels carrying migrants unless it received more help from the EU and member states.
Diplomatic tensions rose further when Austria revealed it had 750 troops and four armoured vehicles on standby to control migration inflows across the Italian border.
Italian interior minister Marco Minniti described the Austrian move as “an unjustified and unprecedented initiative which, if not immediately corrected will inevitably have repercussions on the security co-operation” between the two countries.
Rome was also angered by France and Spain which both turned down an appeal to allow boats carrying rescued migrants to dock in their ports.
More than 85,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea in the first half of the year and more than 2,000 are believed to have drowned trying to make the crossing.
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