By George Psyllides
NICOSIA, April 19 (Reuters) - EU member states on the Mediterranean rim appealed on Tuesday for their partners' support to help cope with an influx of migrants fleeing the turmoil in northern Africa.
"Our position is that the EU should support member states under pressure today," said Cypriot Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis who hosted a meeting of representatives from Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain. France was present as an observer.
"The EU is faced with a series of challenges and it has to respond collectively," Sylikiotis said, outlining proposals they want EU interior ministers to adopt on May 12.
Tuesday's meeting was the second such gathering after a February session in Rome in which France was a full participant.
Interior ministers of the 27-nation bloc failed last week to agree on any common position for dealing with the influx because northern European states, led by Germany and France, consider the numbers do not constitute a crisis.
They argue that most of the North Africans are economic migrants rather than refugees or asylum seekers in need of international protection, and are angry with Italy for granting the newcomers temporary residence permits that would allow them to travel freely in most of the EU.
France, which has closed its border to Tunisian migrants from Italy, was represented on Tuesday by its ambassador to Nicosia who took part as an observer.
More than 450,000 people have fled Libya, mainly crossing into Tunisia and Egypt, but also going to Niger, Algeria, Chad, Sudan, Italy and Malta, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Tunisian migrants have also flowed out of the north African country since the fall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January loosened previously strict frontier controls, opening the way into Europe for thousands seeking employment.
Alfredo Mantovano, undersecretary of state at the Italian Interior Ministry said some 30,000 people had entered Italy from Tunisia in the past three months.
"None of our countries intends to shed their responsibilities and put them on somebody else's shoulders," Mantovano said.
He added that the burden must be shared as much as possible throughout the EU.
In a joint communiqué, the five countries called on the EU's border control agency Frontex to intensify monitoring based on risk analysis and encouraged member states to provide the agency with additional human and technical resources.
They also urged Frontex to expand its operations to prevent illegal flows in the eastern Mediterranean area of Egypt and Syria.
The communiqué also called for the establishment of a special solidarity fund, "when necessary, to tackle exceptional emergency situations and humanitarian crises".
The group wants the EU to establish a common asylum system and present a proposal on relocating migrants within the bloc.
Maltese Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Carmelo Bonnici joined his colleagues in saying this was not just a national problem but a European one "that needs a European solution".
Malta, the smallest EU country in area and population has seen the arrival of more than 1,000 migrants in the past few weeks following the trouble in Libya.
The group said the EU should promote practical cooperation with the countries of origin or transit of illegal immigrants by concluding readmission agreements, developing voluntary return programmes and enhancing their capacity of border management and surveillance.
(editing by Paul Taylor)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
