EU ready to increase support for Italy to cope with influx of migrants

The European Union is ready to scale up its financial and operational support for Italy to help the country manage the mass migration crisis it has been reeling with.

EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos on Saturday said, "I fully understand the Italians' concerns: the situation is no longer acceptable. This is why, we are ready to increase our support for Italy not only in political but also in financial and operational areas," Sputnik International reports.

Avramopoulos further said that it was necessary to divide migrants into two groups: "those who need protection and those who do not need it, as it is the only way to make the EU policy on migrants viable."

"However, we cannot reject the commitment of saving lives. The tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea need to be stopped," Avramopoulos added, recalling that "the European countries' budget for combating migration crisis was set to total 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) although the countries have granted only 89 million euros to date."

Avramopoulos stressed that the European Commission would be in dialogue with Italy and other countries to figure out the measures that should be taken.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that Italy had warned the European Union it might be forced to shut its ports to foreign vessels that disembark immigrants rescued at sea.