Italy, France spar over who will take migrants

[April 08, 2011]  MILAN (AP) -- Ministers from Italy and France are holding talks amid a bitter dispute over what to do with more than 20,000 illegal migrants from Tunisia who have sailed to Italy.

The talks are under way Friday in Milan.

Rome has accused France of harboring a hostile attitude toward those from Tunisia, a former French colony in North Africa. Despite an EU-wide border pact, Paris has vowed to tighten its border controls so the Tunisian migrants can't cross into France from northwest Italy.

Thousands of Tunisians have reached the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa and then been transfered to mainland camps. But hundreds of migrants have run away from the camps and headed to the French border.

Italy has criticized other EU nations for their lack of support on the migrant issue.

[Associated Press]

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