Italy Warns EU Over Migrant Redistribution Proposal

Italy is warning unspecified retaliation against the European Union if governments don’t make good on pledges to take in more asylum seekers as the country copes with migrants massing at newly-tightened borders with its EU neighbors.
Italy Warns EU Over Migrant Redistribution Proposal
Migrants wait to be checked after disembarking from the Italian Coast Guard vessel Peluso as they arrive in the Sicilian port town of Augusta, Italy, Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Some 406 migrants were taken to Sicily after being rescued at sea in the Sicily Channel. (AP Photo/Francesco Malavolta)
The Associated Press
6/14/2015
Updated:
6/14/2015

VENTIMIGLIA, Italy— Italy is warning unspecified retaliation against the European Union if governments don’t make good on pledges to take in more asylum seekers as the country copes with migrants massing at newly-tightened borders with its EU neighbors.

Premier Matteo Renzi has threatened an unspecified “Plan B” and his interior minister, Angelino Alfano, warned Sunday that the EU would find “a different Italy” if it doesn’t endorse a refugee redistribution plan at an EU interior minister meeting this week. Italy also wants European help repatriating migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.

The diplomatic moves came as migrants continued to languish at key border points after French police blocked border crossings last week, including at Ventimiglia, near the swank French Riviera resorts of Nice and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.