Italian Foreign Minister Calls on EU to Urgently Address Migrant Crisis

ROME (Sputnik) — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has called on the European Union member states to urgently and jointly address the migrant crisis in order not to lose control on the issue.

"Europe must urgently remedy the emergency situation, otherwise, it is really in danger of losing control over migration," the minister said Monday in a televised address broadcast by Rai 1 TV channel.

Earlier this year, amid the migrant crisis, the European Commission called on EU member states to help host some 40,000 asylum seekers who had landed mostly in Italy and Greece, surviving a dangerous sea journey. At first, the EU body laid out a quota plan for refugee adoption, but the quotas caused controversy within the bloc, and the European Commission decided to distribute migrants within the bloc on a voluntary basis.

Gentiloni recalled that some EU countries had openly demonstrated "resistance and selfishness' toward asylum seekers while the bloc was engaged in discussions about the quotas.

The migration problem should be addressed as soon as possible because it could spread further to the countries which have not yet faced major migrant influx, the Italian minister stressed.

In recent months, Europe has been facing a major influx of migrants fleeing war-torn countries of the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. According to EU external border protection agency Frontex, the total number of refugees detected at bloc's borders between January and July 2015 stands at over 340,000, which is three times higher compared to the same period in 2014.