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Italian president calls for shared EU asylum policy

Source: News24, 05/09/2015

Cernobbio - Italian President Sergio Mattarella called on Saturday for
shared asylum rules in the European Union, saying thousands of
migrants approaching Europe should not be seen as enemies.

Speaking via video link to a conference in northern Italy, Mattarella
said he was hopeful the bloc was finally on the road to common rules,
after Germany and France joined Italy last week in urging the EU to
take a more centrally coordinated approach.

"The choice is not between surrendering to an invasion and the
supposed defence of 'Fortress Europe'," said Mattarella, whose role is
largely ceremonial but takes on important powers in times of political
instability.

Mattarella said the Dublin Regulation, which requires people seeking
refuge in Europe to do so in the first country where they set foot,
should be replaced with shared, updated rules in order to spread the
burden more fairly.

"The choice is between a Europe that decides its own destiny and a
Europe that doesn't know how to manage events," he said.

Italy, whose southern island of Lampedusa is about 113km from Tunisia
in North Africa from where many migrants come, has long called for
more support in handling migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

Record numbers of migrants also arriving in Greece and through the
Balkans have prompted other countries to join the call to reassess how
Europe deals with them.

"The world is on the move ... millions of women, men, children, a
defenceless army marching in search of safety," Mattarella said. "Are
those people fleeing violence and death our enemies? Or should we see
our enemy in wars and international terrorism?"

Thousands of exhausted migrants streamed into Austria on Saturday,
bussed to the border by a Hungarian government that gave up trying to
stop them with Europe's asylum system buckling.

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