France will to trim the number of legal migrants by 10 percent per year

France will to trim the number of legal migrants by 10 percent per year to 180,000 in part to cope with flows of illegal migrants from the southern Mediterranean neighbors, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Monday."My target is to reduce (legal migrants) by 20,000 from 200, 000 to 180,000 as the first step," Claude Gueant told the private television channel TF1.

Twenty-four percent of non-European foreigners who are in France are unemployed, which is almost twice the national unemployment rate, the minister added.

Gueant said the integration process has failed and France needs to "fight against illegal migration and to regulate legal migration."

According to figures of the High Council for Integration (HCI), 11.5 million immigrants or children of immigrants live in France, representing 19 percent of the country's 65 million population.

The French decision came as it was unhappy with its neighbor's immigration policies. Italy, which has witnessed massive flows of illegal migrants amid unrest in North Africa, decided to offer them with a three-month visa allowing a free move across the European bloc.

"It's a bit easy for Italy to be generous (...) with the territory of others", Christian Estrosi, Nice mayor told RTL radio when commenting on this temporary visa policy.

France stopped on Sunday between 11:00 and 19:00 local time certain rail traffic from Italy to stop a train carrying illegal immigrants who "sought simply to get round Schengen rules" from Genoa, Venice and other major Italy cities, Estrosi, the former industry minister said.

According to the ex-minister, France, Italy and Tunisia discussed measures to enable Tunisian authorities to further control its coast.

Reports said Italian authorities have arrested since January more than 25,000 illegal migrants. Mostly of them were Tunisians who run from the unrest and economic instability in their homeland.

Generally, thousands of Africans try to reach Europe via Italy, Spain or Malta, the three countries most migrants see as heir preferred entry point into Europe. They set sail in small and rickety boasts seeking for better life but unfortunately, many lost their lives in the sea.

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