Paris confirms: "We will not take 3,000 migrants from Italy". Salvini: "Now a tough fist against the landings"
Carpet checks in Ventimiglia, the French government spokesman: "Meloni is the big loser of this situation"
Paris confirms, it will not follow up on the reception of over 3 thousand people who should have been relocated from Italy.
“ We will not do what was foreseen, the reception of a little more than 3 thousand people, 500 of whom by the end of the year in the framework of the European solidarity mechanism ”, said government spokesman Olivier Veran , interviewed by Bfm-Tv. According to Veran “ Giorgia Meloni is the big loser in this situation ”.
"Italy - said the French executive spokesman - does not maintain the fundamental commitment in the European solidarity mechanism, we will not maintain the expected counterpart, that is the reception of 3,000 migrants currently on Italian territory".
Italy, he added, "is the loser as it normally has a European solidarity mechanism which causes a large number of European countries, in particular France and Germany, to commit themselves in return for the acceptance of ships by the Italy, to take foreigners into its territory".
In the meantime, carpet checks have taken place on the Italian-French border of Ventimiglia . French agents block the entry of migrants and the checks have caused the formation of long queues, up to a kilometre, which have made motorists indignant.
The bishop of Ventimiglia Antonio Suetta also intervened on the case: "France's reaction is disproportionate, it is not human from the point of view of European solidarity, not very loyal".
In the meantime, the German ambassador to Italy, Viktor Ebling , has sung the praises of the NGOs: “In 2022 there are already over 1,300 people dead or missing in the Mediterranean, 12% of the survivors have been rescued by the NGOs. They save lives where help from states is lacking. Their humanitarian efforts deserve our recognition and our support ,” he wrote on Twitter.
But Salvini, always on Twitter, announces that the government will use a tough fist even more: “ Squeeze in sight, fines, seizures and more checks. The government ready to strike hard on the landings ”, he writes.
(Unioneonline/L)
