Trainstoppers
19th April 2011
I concluded last Saturday’s report with an account of the granting of temporary residence visas to the Tunisian immigrants at the Ventimiglia refugee camp in Italy. Ventimiglia is a short distance from the border with France, and many of the Tunisians have relatives in France. As a result, as soon as they leave Ventimiglia, they attempt to cross the border.
Every body knows this. The French know it and the Italians know it. Those temporary visas serve as “passports”, and the Italians think they should allow migrants free access to the entire Schengen Area. However, the rest of the EU disagrees, especially France. By granting visas to the migrants, Italy is saying, in effect: “OK, France — we’re going to help these culture-enrichers get into the Promised Land in France. What are you going to do about it?”
The French promptly demonstrated just exactly what they were going to do about it: yesterday they stopped Italian trains from crossing the border at Ventimiglia.
I don’t suppose anybody would consider, oh, shipping them back to North Africa. No, I suppose not.