France “takes its part”. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna repeated on Friday that Paris was participating in the distribution of migrants, in a context of crisis in Lampedusain Italy, where thousands of migrants have flocked in recent days.
Speaking on the LCI channel, Catherine Colonna also considered it “imperative” that the long European negotiations on the asylum and migration pact end “before the end of the year”. This pact “allows us both to strengthen our protections at our external borders, to prevent irregular migrants from arriving, but if they are there, to welcome those who need to be there and to share the burden a little,” he said. she pointed out.
“Duty of solidarity”
“You know that France takes its share, that European countries take unequally and some even refuse to do so,” she continued, in a context of tensions between member states, especially with Germany. Head of State Emmanuel Macron defended on Friday a “duty of European solidarity” with Italy while Berlin has just suspended the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from this country due to “strong pressure migration” and Rome’s refusal to apply European agreements. However, Germany also appears ready to reimplement relocations “if Italy fulfills its obligation to take back refugees” in accordance with EU rules, according to Berlin.
Video. 7,000 migrants on the island of Lampedusa, state of emergency declared
Located less than 150 km from the Tunisian coast, Lampedusa is one of the first stops for migrants crossing the Mediterranean hoping to reach Europe. Every year, during the summer, tens of thousands of them take to the sea on often dilapidated boats to attempt this perilous crossing in which more than 2,000 of them have already died since January.
However, the situation has never been so tense in Lampedusa where the majority of the 11,000 migrants who arrived since Monday on Italian territory landed, according to the Ministry of the Interior, saturating the reception center managed by the Italian Red Cross and whose capacity is 400 places.