Italy on Saturday declared a humanitarian emergency on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa after 4,000 people arrived there by boat over the past week from Tunisia, which is experiencing unrest after a popular revolt ousted its president.
After Rome appealed to Brussels for help, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström was said to be "fully aware of the exceptional pressure on Italy," the DPA news agency reported.
A Commission spokeswoman said the response was being addressed partly through the Frontex agency, a Warsaw-based European body that coordinates resources to patrol EU borders.
Tunisia's interim cabinet will discuss a response to the situation, a government spokesman said.
Asked how the Tunisian authorities would respond to the problem, government spokesman Tayeb Baccouche told Reuters: "I cannot say as this is a response for the security forces."
"We need to discuss this in the cabinet once we have been alerted by the Italian government, because we have not yet been informed directly by the Italian government," said Baccouche, who is also Tunisia's education minister.
Baccouche said the problem of illegal migration was not new but may have accelerated because of a deterioration in law and order inside Tunisia in the past few weeks, which the government is struggling to restore.
"This is a phenomenon that has never stopped since before [Ben Ali's departure] but now we are in an exceptional situation. These young people have taken advantage of the situation. Therefore I think in this context the phenomenon is fairly normal," he said.
Italy to send police in Tunisia?
Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Sunday that Europe was not doing anything to help stop the flow of migrants and that he would request permission from Tunisia for the Italian authorities to intervene, the BBC reported.
Maroni, who is a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party, said the Tunisian system was "collapsing".
He accused other EU countries of leaving Italy to deal with the situation alone, despite the impact it could have on other countries.
Baccouche said the Tunisians would reject the idea of receiving foreign troops on their soil, but said the cabinet would debate the issue.
Malta next?
In the meantime, Malta's justice minister, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, wrote to Malmström to express concern that his country could be soon affected by the immigration wave, the Times of Malta reported.
He said Malta was backing calls by Italy for a forthcoming meeting of EU justice ministers to discuss the impact of developments in Northern Africa on immigration.
According to the UN refugee agency that is monitoring the situation, Malta could be a landing point for Tunisian migrants who are fleeing in large numbers to Lampedusa.
