While 5,000 Tunisian refugees arrived these days on the Italian coasts, Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused yesterday hosting a part of them on German soil. According to Frankfurter Rundschau, Merkel considered that the mission of the European Union was rather to encourage the democratic transition in Tunis, and to convince Tunisians to return to their country.

The Italian Interior Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni has also complained of the lack of European Union aid, clamming that this behavior would threaten the institutional and social structures of Europe, and has asked the EU for about 100m euros to deal with the recent entries and “offered to send Italian police forces to Tunisia in order to prevent the departure of illegal immigrants”.

The situation in Lampedusa “reveals the inadequacy of EU migration policies as well as their dependence on the presence of dictators such as Ben Ali and Gaddafi. Furthermore, the humanitarian situation may soon deteriorate beyond Lampedusa as a series of countries from Morocco to Syria may each present a humanitarian risk”, Rui Tavares, Left bloc MEP and GUE/NGL coordinator of civil liberties committee declared in the European Parliament Plenary Session yesterday.

“We all want these revolutions to go well, if not the EU could be faced with its most serious humanitarian crisis, akin to the 1956 Hungarian crisis that prompted the creation of the UNHCR. Mrs Ashton and Mrs Malmström must both reveal our level of preparedness: are we following the situation? Are Member States prepared to show solidarity by receiving large numbers of refugees? Do we have the necessary infrastructure for reception? This is a crucial test for Europe. We have to stop end the current piecemeal approach and act at the continental level to solve a continental problem” the MEP defended.

More than 5,000 immigrants have arrived to Lampedusa - south of Sicily island - by boat during the past week, following last month’s protests over unemployment and poverty in Tunisia and the consequent oust of President Ben Ali. Most of the new comers seemed to be around 20 years old and said they expected they would be given the chance of freedom to better live and to find a work in Europe.

watch the video here: observers.france24.com/fr/content/20110214-tunisie-immigration-italie-lampedusa-zarzis