Shatter says Ireland may take Libyan refugees

IRELAND is considering taking a handful of Libyan political refugees following a request from Malta for help with looking after about 2,000 who landed on the island following the uprising against the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi.

At a heated justice ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg, Italian minister Roberto Maroni threatened his country would leave the EU because of objections over its handling of 25,000 Tunisian refugees.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said his department had some funding available to provide protection to refugees. “We are giving consideration to what assistance we might give to Malta,” he said.

He said Germany will take 100 and what Ireland would take would be in proportion to that. Slovakia is to take 10, while Finland is ready to accept 72. It is not clear whether the refugees were fleeing from the Gaddafi regime or the rebels.

Italy, a gateway for Tunisians in particular landing on the island of Lampedusa, which is closer to north Africa than Europe, wanted EU help dealing with what the country’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called a “human tsunami” of refugees and immigrants.

He said he was giving them temporary documents for six months that would allow them travel throughout the EU, but other member states reacted with fury.

Shatter said there was a lot of unease over the way t Italy decided to handle the matter. “I think it’s unfortunate that the action was announced on a matter on which other member states did not have an option to engage in the discussion.”

The German minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, was adamant the Italians should not take such action. “Italy must solve its refugee problem itself,” he said, adding that the unilateral action was in breach of the Schengen agreement that saw borders disappear between most EU countries.

Two German states bordering Italy, Bavaria and Hesse, have said they may introduce border checks.

France, the former colonial power in Tunisia, is carrying out checks on its borders with Italy and threatening to turn back any Tunisians even if they have the Italian documents.

Maroni who belongs to the xenophobic Northern League, was furious at the reaction and told the meeting that he would recommend that his country would leave the EU.

Shatter said that there was some confusion as to whether Italy has already issued the Tunisians with documents and it appeared that they were now saying they would begin processing the migrants.