Europe’s unrelenting migrant crisis is threatening to overwhelm Italy, even as the tide of flimsy boats washing up on Greece’s shores has slowed to a trickle.
More than 85,000 people fleeing poverty and violence have risked the perilous Mediterranean crossing to reach Italy this year, a 20% increase over the same period in 2016, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration. At least 2,150 others have died trying.
The surge has inflamed a long-standing dispute over the way European Union countries share the burden of accommodating refugees and migrants from Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Italian officials, who have been among the more welcoming in Europe, threatened last week to close their ports to rescue ships operated by humanitarian groups that weren’t flying the Italian flag unless they received more help from other EU members.
On Tuesday, Austrian defense officials said they were prepared to use armored vehicles and troops to prevent migrants from crossing the border from Italy.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, decried the “unfolding tragedy.”
“Italy is playing its part in receiving those rescued and providing asylum to those in need of protection,” he said in a statement Saturday. “But this cannot be an Italian problem alone. It is, first and foremost, a matter of international concern.”
Until last year, many of those trying to reach Europe were Syrians using the shorter route from Turkey to the Greek islands. But the number of arrivals there has plunged since the EU struck a deal with Turkey in March that year to stem the flow. More than 9,200 have made the crossing this year, compared with 158,000 in the first half of 2016.
The rest of the arrivals by sea have been shared between Spain and Cyprus, which as of Monday had received 6,464 and 273, respectively.