A senior interior ministry official on Thursday denied allegations of beatings, abuse and illegal expulsions at asylum-seeeker hotspots in Italy in a report by Amnesty International. "It is totally false the the police use violence on migrants," said Prefect Mario Morcone, the head of the interior ministry's migration department. "I was disconcerted to read such stupidity. Amnesty compiles its reports in London, not in Italy".
The European Commission has no knowledge of violations of migrants' rights in Italian hotspots, EC immigration spokesperson Natasha Bertaud said Thursday. "Nothing of all that has been reported to us," she said. The Amnesty report cited "arbitrary expulsions" and maltreatment verging on "torture" including sexual humiliation in some cases.
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