Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday that there was a risk that terrorists could be among the waves of thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy from North Africa every year. But the minister also stressed that confusing terrorism and migration was an "idiocy". "There are considerable risks of terrorists infiltrating immigration (flows)," Gentiloni said after arriving in London for a security meeting on ISIS.
"Fortunately our security structures are alerted and they function, but that does not allow is to lower the level of concern at all".
Those comments sparked a rapid reaction, with Northern League leader Matteo Salvini calling for the end of the Triton search-and-rescue operation for migrants in the Mediterranean.
"Saying that terrorists armed with Kalashnikovs are hidden among the tens of thousands of desperate people who land on our coasts is senseless," Gentiloni said.
"That does not exclude the fact that in the current climate there can be risks that the intelligence services and security bodies are watching out for".
Premier Matteo Renzi's government is set to approve new anti-terror measures at a cabinet meeting later on Thursday in the wake of this month's attacks in France by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
This are expected to include the withdrawal of the passports of foreign fighters, stiffer punishment for those who help jihad activities and greater powers for vigilance of extremists on the Internet.
Italy is on a high terror alert, in part because Rome plays host to the Vatican.
A number of Islamic extremists have been ejected from the country in recent months and border checks have been strengthened.
On Thursday a 30-year-old Albanian man was arrested at Catania airport with false identity documents. Police found photos of the man holding a Kalashnikov automatic rifle stored on a pen drive after searching his bags.
They also found files with documents of various nationalities, including Italian. This was his second brush this month with airport security officials - police said the man had already been reported to prosecutors after trying to board a flight to London from Milan's Malpensa airport with fake documents on January 13. On Thursday, after passing through airport controls, the man did not head to the gate for a flight to Bucharest, the one he was showed a ticket for at first, but instead went to the gate for the London flight with a ticket he bought on the Internet. He also had a online boarding pass for London.
Investigators are now poring over his pen drive and the false identity documents. Italian police have reinforced border checks in the wake of this month's Islamist terror attacks in France.
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