Tunisia migrant row threatens border-free travel in Europe (VIDEO)
Tunisian migrants wait at Ventimiglia train station, on March 31, 2011. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to visit Tunisia to discuss with the new government there how to stem the flow of migrants to the tiny island of Lampedusa, the government in Rome said.
Italy and France have asked the European Union to revise the 1995 Schengen border treaty that allows passport-free travel through Europe after a row over an influx of Tunisian refugees into Europe.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was holding emergency talks in Rome on Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Paris has harshly criticized Berlusconi's decision to give more than 25,000 Tunisian refugees residence permits — allowing them to travel through Europe.
Sarkozy sparked a major diplomatic incident on Apr. 18 by closing the rail border with Italy at Ventimiglia to prevent a "dignity train" carrying immigrants and activists to cross.
The EU backed the French action, saying they had a right to temporarily close their border to prevent disturbances to "public order."
Sarkozy is facing re-election in 2012 and is under attack from anti-immigrant, far-right politicians. Socialist and the anti-immigration National Front made big gains in recent regional elections, with National Front leader Marine Le Pen, daughter of the party's controversial founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, taking 11 percent.
Several hundred Tunisians carrying residence permits into France have already been sent back to Italy.
France has accused Italy of encouraging the Arab migrants — who are mainly French-speaking and have family in France — to travel on to France.
Italy, meanwhile, accuses its fellow EU member states — especially France — of not pulling their weight in dealing with the influx. Berlusconi has also accused the EU of failing to help Italy and questioned the value of belonging to the union, according to the Telegraph.
The crisis is to be debated by the European Commission on May 4 and then discussed 11 days later at a meeting of EU interior ministers.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said that Rome would accept temporary French border controls — amounting to a review of Schengen — in return for EU cash to help deal with Arab migrants.
''Schengen needs a check-up. All treaties age, inevitably,'' he reportedly said. ''A review is needed to adapt this agreement to a rapidly changing world.''
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