Italy criticised France's "disproportionate" decision to suspend its reception of 3,500 refugees who are being hosted in the capital, and to reinforce border patrols after Rome refused to allow hundreds of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to land.
''This is a disproportionate reaction from France," foreign minister Antonio Tajanitold reporters in Amsterdam, where he is accompanying Italy's president Sergio Mattarella on an official visit.
The Ocean Viking, a ship operated by the SOS Mediterranee charity, will be allowed to dock in Toulon and disembark all 234 migrants aboard following the rightwing Italian government's "reprehensible" and "selfish" refusal to allow them to disembark in Sicily after two weeks at sea, France's interior minister Gerard Darmanin said on Thursday.
"There are people who want to come to Italy. We are ready to give them medical treatment but they cannot all come to Italy," Tajani said.
"Little has been done to redistribute migrants and we need to show resolve and find a solution. Polemics don't really help - a solution must be found in Africa," Tajani added.
Italy's interior minister Matteo Piantedosi also rejected France's "totally incomprehensible" move, saying it highlighted Europe's failure to handle a growing influx of migrants, many of whom arrive via boats from North Africa.
"France's reaction to the request to take in 234 migrants, while Italy has taken in 90,000 this year alone, is totally incomprehensible in the face of constant calls for solidarity," Piantedosi said in a statement.
Thirteen European states have pledged to take in some 8,000 of the 90,000 arrivals in 2022 - less than a tenth of the total - but so far just 117 migrants have been transferred to other European countries and only 38 to France, the statement noted.
"European solidarity is vaunted but Italy has faced this problem alone and our asylum system is on its knees... gateway countries like Italy cannot bear alone the burden of responsibility for managing the migrant influx."
