Italy hits back over migration security

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has warned that Rome will not accept either

"lessons" or "threats" from neighbors on border security amid tension over

Europe's migrant crisis.

"We shall not accept lessons and still less threats such as those we have heard

from our neighbors in recent days," said Gentiloni.

"We are doing our duty and expect the whole of Europe to do the same alongside

Italy," Gentiloni said late Friday in a clear reference to demands by some

neighbors that Italy close its borders.

Italy summoned Austria's ambassador on Tuesday after Vienna threatened to send

troops to the border, open as part of Europe's Schengen passport-free zone, to

stop migrants entering after the number crossing the Mediterranean topped

100,000 this year.

Some 2,360 drowned in the attempt, according to the UN's International

Organization for Migration. Other EU states, including Slovakia, the Czech

Republic, Hungary and Poland, have also expressed alarm at the continued

arrivals.

Italy has taken in some 85 percent of this year's arrivals -- mostly sub-Saharan

Africans crossing from conflict-ravaged Libya -- and has pleaded for help from

other European Union nations.

But Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have flatly refused to take part in a

relocation scheme.

Austrian Foreign Minister

Sebastian Kurz on Thursday urged Italy to stop migrants from reaching

the mainland by halting ferry services from the islands where they first

land, saying "rescue missions in the Mediterranean cannot be seen as a

ticket to central Europe."