TUNIS – Tunisia said it was ready to work with foreign governments to stem a wave of immigrants heading across the Mediterranean as it hosted talks Monday with the chief diplomats of the European Union and Italy.
Around 5,000 asylum-seekers have landed on the remote Italian island of Lampedusa in the past week, most of them fleeing Tunisia after the president was toppled a month ago, leading Rome to declare a humanitarian emergency. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s interior minister triggered a diplomatic row at the weekend by calling for Italian police to be sent to north Africa to tackle the problem.
The Tunis government called his comments “unacceptable” but said it was to be expected from a minister with a fascist background, a reference to his membership of the anti-immigration Northern League party.
