The European establishment, not just Italy anymore, is quite worried by new mass arrivals of refugees from the South, as well as those that continue to come in from the East. The alarm, launched yesterday by the president of the European Council Donald Tusk before the European Parliament, came as the face off continued between Italy and Austria over new border controls at Brenner.



“The number of potential immigrant from Libya is alarming,” Tusk acknowledged yesterday in Strasbourg during a plenary session of the parliamentary assembly. “It means we must be ready to demonstrate solidarity with Malta and Italy if they ask us for it. It won’t be possible to simply copy the solution that we are implementing in the Balkans, because Libya is not Turkey.”



Before yesterday, the president of the council had never expressed with such clarity the risks of new routes for migrants. In March, the 28 EU nations noted the risk of having to handle new arrivals in Italy from Libya, but only reluctantly. Meanwhile, from the East, statistics show a dip in arrivals after Ankara and Brussels signed a controversial agreement that calls for sending all refugees who arrived in Greece from March 20 onwards back to Turkey.

According to Tusk, 150,000 people have illegally entered Europe since the start of the year: 70,000 in January, 50,000 in February, 30,000 in March, about 1,000 so far in April. The head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will meet with Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu on how to work together on migrant issues. Just yesterday, at the border between Macedonia and Greece, there were new clashes between Macedonian police and fifty or so migrants who tried to climb over the metal barricade on the border of the two countries. Police used tear gas.



The EU-Turkish agreement seems to have slowed arrivals from the East, but as Tusk said, it risks doubling the landings in the South (where 20,000 people have arrived since January).

Austria decided to build a barrier at Brenner to stem the feared arrivals, triggering protests from Italy.



In Brussels, following a joint letter to the Commission from Italy’s Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, and Interior Minister, Angelino Alfano, Italy’s new permanent EU representative Carlo Calenda asked the Commission to take a firm stance as it considers the need for and the proportionality of Austria’s decision.



Italy must reckon with Tusk’s alarm bell and the measures taken by Vienna. Rome has a double set of concerns regarding Austria. The Italian government fears that the enhanced controls at Brenner will slow down commercial traffic, and also that the decision, as it relates to new refugees from the South, could transform Italy — like Greece — into an enormous refugee camp given the absence of an effective mechanism to redistribute refugees throughout Europe.



Yesterday, many political groups in the European Parliament exhorted the 28 to finally put the agreement on refugee redistribution, signed in 2015, into practice.

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