Migrant issue: EU pledges solidarity as Italy demands concrete action
Brussels, June 28: Italy will receive solidarity from the European Union on redistributing across the 28-nation bloc the influx of migrants arriving from Africa, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pledged on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Italy's populist Premier Giuseppe Conte, who arrived here for a key summit of EU heads of state and government, stressed that frontline states like Italy need "concrete action" on migration from other EU countries, not just statements of solidarity.
"We must show solidarity. I have been pushing for this for years and it will happen," Juncker said on the sidelines of the key summit at which the controversial issue of migration will be a central topic.
Italy is the main arrival state for boat migrants from Africa and Conte could refuse to sign off on the EU summit conclusions if other states refuse to take in a share of asylum-seekers under a quota system.
Despite a sharp fall in arrivals by sea compared with the last two years, over 16,500 migrants have reached Italy this year and more than 700,000 have landed since 2014. Its new hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is now taking a tough stance, refusing charity rescue ships entry to Italian ports and threatening to deport half a million illegal immigrants.
European Council President Donald Tusk has called for the summit on Thursday and Friday to agree to "regional disembarkation platforms" outside of Europe to weed out economic migrants from refugees, a dedicated EU budget for migration control, and more funding for the Libyan coastguard.
Liberal democracy is at stake in Europe unless nations swiftly secure borders and stop the wave of illegal immigration, Tusk warned in a letter.
Conte, meanwhile, said: "Italy has developed a plan to manage migrant flows which it is bringing to this European Council meeting."
"We believe the plan to be totally reasonable because it fully conforms to the spirit and principles on which the EU is founded," he added.
Italy and Conte himself had received "many manifestations of solidarity" in meetings with European leaders but now these statements needed to be "transformed into action," he said.
"We expect these words to be transformed into action. This is the perfect opportunity," he underlined.
Migration is to be a central topic at the European Council summit taking place on Thursday and Friday as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel fights for her political survival over the issue.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
