{"id":399106,"date":"2011-04-26T11:48:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T11:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/26\/france-italy-want-migrant-reform\/"},"modified":"2011-04-26T11:48:32","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T11:48:32","slug":"france-italy-want-migrant-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/26\/france-italy-want-migrant-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"France-Italy want migrant reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

26 April 2011<\/span> Last updated at<\/span> 07:48 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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\"Tunisian<\/p>\n

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The BBC’s Matthew Price joins migrants travelling from Ventimiglia in Italy to France<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The leaders of France and Italy have said Europe’s Schengen open-border treaty should be revised.<\/p>\n

The move by President Nicolas Sarkozy and PM Silvio Berlusconi comes after they met to discuss the recent rise in North African migration to Europe.<\/p>\n

Italy has angered France by granting visas to thousands of migrants, allowing them to travel across Europe’s border-free Schengen zone.<\/p>\n

About 25,000 migrants have arrived in southern Italy so far during 2011.<\/p>\n

Many have fled unrest in North Africa and among them are thousands of Tunisians hoping to join relatives in France.<\/p>\n

Both Mr Berlusconi and Mr Sarkozy are facing domestic political pressure to curb migration from right-wing parties opposed to large-scale immigration.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a news conference in Rome after their meeting, Mr Berlusconi said neither Italy nor France wanted to end Schengen.<\/p>\n

“But in exceptional circumstances, we both believe that there should be variations to the Schengen treaty, and we’ve decided to work on that together,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Berlusconi said the two leaders had jointly written to the European Council asking that the treaty be investigated.<\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n

Gavin Hewitt’s Europe<\/h2>\n

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From the start the Italian government set out to make this a European problem\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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In addition, he said southern Mediterranean countries should not be left on their own to deal with the problems posed by mass immigration.<\/p>\n

France and Italy would also ask the Tunisian government to collaborate with them in dissuading migrants from coming to Europe, Mr Berlusconi said.<\/p>\n

Mr Sarkozy said Schengen had to be reformed to help it survive.<\/p>\n

“We have the Euro, we have reformed the European economy, we would like to see the same thing done to Schengen,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Schengen treaty allows legal residents of most EU countries, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland to travel across the zone with only minimal border checks.<\/p>\n

Patrols<\/span><\/p>\n

Migrants heading to Europe from North Africa often arrive at the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies about 120km (75 miles) off the Tunisian coast.<\/p>\n

The upheavals across the Arab world have triggered a huge wave of migration, and Italy has complained it is being left to cope with the influx alone.<\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n

SCHENGEN AGREEMENT<\/h2>\n