ITALY/EU: Faced with the "time bomb" of immigration, the European Union must draw up a Mediterranean Convention that would regulate the flow of non-EU migrants into Europe, according to the Union's incoming Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner, Italian Mr Rocco Buttiglione.
Speaking late on Friday after the first informal meeting of the new European Commission in Brussels, Mr Buttiglione immediately highlighted the Mediterranean Convention as an important priority, saying: "One of the agreements we have got to arrive at in the Commission is that regarding a Mediterranean Convention, which would establish ground rules and basic principles (re immigration)."
His comments appear to represent backing for the idea of establishing "immigration gateways", a proposal recently made by both the Italian and German Interior Ministers, Mr Giuseppe Pisanu and Mr Otto Schily.
In principle, such "gateways" or holding camps would be set up in transit countries such as Libya and Tunisia and would vet would-be migrants, separating potential criminals from potential workers.
In practice, however, as critics such as the Catholic charity Caritas and the Italian Green Party argue, , the "gateways" could end up becoming concentration camps.
Mr Buttiglione disagrees, saying: "They cannot and must not become concentration camps, but rather offer help and medical assistance. In the camps, too, it would be possible to identify someone suspected of being a criminal and then send him home."
Such camps would have to be set up by the authorities of the transit country, albeit with the economic and technical support of the EU, while costs would have to be divided equally among member-countries, said Mr Buttiglione.
"The important thing is not to offend the sensibilities of these (transit) countries, making sure that the whole initiative is not seen as some sort of EU colonialism," Mr Buttiglione said. Elaborating on his remarks yesterday, Mr Buttiglione told Reuters news agency that the immigration question was a "time bomb".
"People seeking asylum for economic reasons is a growing problem, a time bomb.
"We have to ask transit countries to establish the camps that would take in immigrants who, for example, arrive from sub-Saharan Africa, to offer them humanitarian aid and information about job possibilities in Europe".
Italy has long been at the centre of the EU immigration debate given that, over the last 15 years, thousands of non-EU migrants from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe have regularly attempted clandestine entry along its 7,600 kilometre long coastline, often with tragic consequences.
Earlier this month, 30 Africans died of cold and dehydration while crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, while last January 20th Albanian migrants lost their lives in the Otranto Channel.
Figures released last week by the Geneva-based UN body, the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM), suggest that the flow of immigrants to the industrialised, developed world is destined to increase.
The GCIM estimates that up to one billion people, between the ages of 15 and 35, will leave poorer countries over the next 10 years, destined for the richer economies of the US, Europe and Asia.