Migrants Refusing To Leave Italy-French Border In Standoff

Migrants sit together after waking up while the rest sleep on the rocky beach at the France's Mediterranean boarder with Italy near Menton, southeastern France, Monday, June 15, 2015. French border police blocked border crossings last week, citing the influx of migrants, principally from Eritrea and Sudan, and about 200 would-be refugees have refused to leave the rocks of Ventimiglia, Italy, just a few kilometers from the swank resorts of Nice and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. (AP)

VENTIMIGLIA, ITALY (AP) — 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.