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Migrants refuse to leave Italy-French border as standoff threatens to overshadow EU meeting

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Migrants sleep on the rocks by the sea in Ventimiglia, at the border between Italy and France, early Monday, June 15, 2015. A standoff between nearly 200 migrants and the French border police has entered its fourth day with would-be refugees refusing to leave Italy's Mediterranean border with France in hopes of continuing their journeys north. (AP Photo/Massimo Pinca) (The Associated Press)

A migrant brushes his teeth after sleeping on the rocks by the sea in Ventimiglia, at the border between Italy and France, Monday, June 15, 2015. French border police blocked border crossings last week, citing the influx of migrants, and about 200 would-be refugees have refused to leave the rocks of Ventimiglia, just a few kilometers from the swank resorts of Nice and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. (AP Photo/Massimo Pinca) (The Associated Press)

Migrants gather on the rocks in Ventimiglia, at the border between Italy and France, Monday, June 15, 2015. French border police blocked border crossings last week, citing the influx of migrants, and about 200 would-be refugees have refused to leave the rocks of Ventimiglia, just a few kilometers from the swank resorts of Nice and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. (AP Photo/Massimo Pinca) (The Associated Press)

A standoff between nearly 200 migrants and the French border police has entered its fourth day with the group refusing to leave Italy's Mediterranean border with France in hopes of continuing their journeys north.

The migrants, most from Sudan, Libya and Eritrea, again spent the night on the rocks at the Ventimiglia border crossing, kilometers from the posh resorts of the French Riviera. The French Interior Ministry said it had reinforced border controls over the past few weeks due to an influx of migrants.

Italy is expected to raise the matter at an EU interior ministers' meeting Tuesday in Luxembourg. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano called the Ventimiglia standoff a "slap in the face to Europe" and demanded EU countries take in asylum-seekers, since most don't want to stay in Italy.