LAMPEDUSA, April 9: Europe will have to pull its weight over immigration in the face of a “human tsunami phenomenon” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday during a visit to Lampedusa.

“Europe will not be able to shirk (responsibility),” Berlusconi said, a day after more than 500 North Africans arrived on the tiny Mediterranean island despite a recent pact with Tunisia.

“This is not a problem for a single country but for the whole of Europe,” he said.

Italy sparked a diplomatic row this week when it announced it would grant six-month residency permits to more than 20,000 Tunisian migrants, in an interpretation of the Schengen treaty that would allow travel to France.

Germany objected that the move was “a blow to the spirit of Schengen”, the EU's 25-nation visa-free zone, which has gradually eased internal border controls in Europe.

“We have these problems with Germany but we are sorting it out,” Berlusconi told reporters on Lampedusa.

Chancellor Angela Merkel would “have to come to terms with reality and with the fact that Europe is something real or concrete... or it's not.

“And if not, then it's better to split up again and each follow their own fears and egoism. “I think the Chancellor will not be able to do other than agree on (the) politics of European sharing in the face of this human tsunami phenomenon,” he added.

Earlier, the premier had congratulated himself on his resolution of the immigration problem on Lampedusa, telling local residents he had kept his word over clearing the island of all migrants—if only for around 24 hours.—AFP