Italy cannot hope to off-load some of the Libyan migrants it predicts will land on its shores to other European Union countries unless they volunteer to take them, the EU warned Wednesday, DPA reported.
The message from the European Commission came as Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Rome that the EU "must play its part" in helping his country cope with what he predicted could be an influx of up to 300,000 Libyans.
"On the basis of existing legislation, all solidarity in this sense is on a voluntary basis," European Commission spokesman Michele Cercone told reporters in Brussels.
Italy has been clamouring for EU help since over 5,000 people arrived on its tiny southern island of Lampedusa following a democratic upheaval in Tunisia, and its concerns have worsened since unrest spread to Libya.
In response, the EU border patrol agency FRONTEX has deployed a mission in the Southern Mediterranean to help Italian authorities, while the commission has said some EU funding may be redirected towards the emergency.
EU interior ministers are due to discuss the situation further on Thursday, acting on a specific Italian request.
But ahead of the meeting, diplomats have warned while Italy could expect financial and technical aid, any "burden sharing" of the flows of irregular migrants that may come from North Africa was out of the question.
"A country of 60 million should not have problems in accommodating a few thousand migrants," one source noted.
"Besides, I don't remember Italy offering to take up people when Malta was facing an immigration crisis," the diplomat added.