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IMMIGRATION

Italy closes Lampedusa migrant centre for renovation after conditions criticized

The migrant reception centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where conditions have markedly deteriorated in recent months, will be temporarily shut down for renovation works, the Italian interior ministry said on Tuesday.

Published: 14 March 2018 16:51 CET
Italy closes Lampedusa migrant centre for renovation after conditions criticized
The migrant reception centre on Lampedusa. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

After years in which hundreds of migrants were housed for long periods often in squalid conditions, the building was turned into an identification centre where migrants, in theory, spend just a few days before being transferred.

Those rescued at sea are now mostly taken directly to Sicily: in 2017, Lampedusa – which lies closer to North Africa than to Italy – only received 9,000 of the 119,000 migrants that arrived on the country's shores.

READ ALSO: Migrant rescued at sea dies hours after arriving in Italy

Many of them were Tunisians, arriving in such vast numbers that the systematic repatriation agreement in place with Tunisia could not keep up. Italian authorities have preferred to keep the new arrivals on the island in the hope of repatriating them, rather than losing sight of them on the mainland.

Several protests have broken out in recent months as migrants lashed out at prolonged waiting times. Last week a protest ended in an arson attack which left part of the centre in ruins.

Burnt walls, rubbish-strewn corridors, foam mattresses without sheets and squalid toilets without doors, could be seen in photos taken by a fireman which circulated in the Italian media.

READ ALSO: Italy's migrants don't expect life to change after the election


People waiting outside the centre in 2015. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Even before the fire broke out, several associations had denounced the living conditions of the 100 or so migrants living in limbo in the centre, some of whom had been there for months.

On Tuesday, the Italian Red Cross threatened to end its activities in the centre if measures were not taken to ensure the safety of the migrants and the staff.

Hours later, the mayor of Lampedusa, Salvatore Martello visited the interior ministry in Rome, where a “temporary” closure of the centre, with no fixed end date, was decided.

Migrants will be moved quickly to other centres while “restructuring work takes place, starting with the fence, the canteen and the video surveillance,” the ministry announced in a statement.

READ ALSO: Immigration in Italy: Fact-checking 5 common myths and assumptions

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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