France does not want to accept migrants from Lampedusa ‘No one really believes in the counter-offensive anymore, but Kiev must continue anyway’

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has refused to accept migrants who have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. “France will not accept migrants from Lampedusa,” Darmanin said on TF1 on Tuesday evening. France wants a position of strictness. There is irregular migration in France and Italy, as in all of Europe, that must be combated, Darmanin said. “And it is not the case that by accepting more people we can dry up the flow that affects our ability to integrate.”

According to Darmanin, France has offered to help Italy repatriate people to countries with which Paris has good diplomatic relations. The interior minister said that 60 percent of the people arriving in Lampedusa were French-speaking.

Last week, several thousand boat migrants reached Lampedusa. Last Tuesday alone, more than 5,000 people arrived on the island between Sicily and North Africa – more than ever before in one day. The initial shelter was at times extremely overcrowded. To relieve pressure on the camp, thousands of people were taken by ferries and police ships to Sicily or directly to the Italian mainland. (sda/dpa)