At least 20,000 migrants are poised to set out from the coast of North Africa toward Italy, the Italian Interior Ministry has said. In a letter to the European Commission, it dramatically warned that “a new emergency is approaching” and called for a common European strategy in response.

Italian intelligence sources quoted by La Stampa daily newspaper claimed that migrants will set out in boats and dinghies, mainly Libya, encouraged by the return of NGO vessels patrolling the coast of Libya.

With a “new emergency” imminent, the Italian government has asked the EU “for an equitable distribution of asylum seekers.” According to the Corriere della Sera daily newspaper, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus support Italy’s position. Rome has called on Brussels both to negotiate with Libya and Tunisia on ways to check departures, and to explore how to manage arrivals within the EU.

“We had enough of words and promises from Brussels on the migrant quotas. Now we need facts,” Enzo Amendola, the Italian minister for EU affairs, told the ANSA news agency, pointing out that the questions posed by Italy and other Mediterranean EU states “need an answer now.”