French Interior Minister asks Italy to stem flow of migrants from Tunusia

PARIS (Itar-Tass) -- French Interior Minister Claude Gueant
has addressed Italy with a request to stem the flow of illegal immigrants
from Tunisia, part of whom intend to move to French territory. He made
this statement to journalists in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes department). The
interior minister was touring the south-eastern districts of France to
study the situation on the Franco-Italian border.
"We hope that our Italian friends will follow the established rules of
the European Union. We ask them to hold back in their territory the flow
of migrants, and to accept those illegal immigrants who are sent to Italy
by the authorities of other countries. These actions are the duty of the
country from which migrants arrive originally," said Gueant.
The interior minister said that the French authorities intended to
crack down on illegal migration. He declared that of the 436 migrants who
were detained in February in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and most of
whom were Tunisians, 250 were sent to Italy.
According to the department's police, the Italian authorities in the
first three day of March already detained more than a thousand illegal
immigrants, mostly Tunisians, who were on their way to France.