Interior Minister Angelino Alfano
said Monday the Liguria coastal town of Ventimiglia near the
French border "will not be our Calais" after recent tension over
the build-up of migrants and refugees there.
"The future of Europe is being played out on the
Ventimiglia border, including at the Italian-French border
post," Alfano said in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper
after tension between local No Border activists and the Italian
authorities culminated in the death by heart attack of a police
officer during clashes on Saturday.
"And we are managing (the border) with maximum efficiency
during what is a genuine emergency on the immigration front," he
continued.
"We are saving Schengen and therefore the (European)
Union," Alfano added in reference to the agreement allowing the
free movement of people that underpins the bloc.
"It must be clear to everyone: if Ventimiglia has not yet
become an Italian Calais it is due to the fact that we have
carried out railway inspections, and not just those, in order to
reduce rather than increase the flows, while at the same time
transferring migrants building up there to other centres," the
minister said.
He was referring to the vast encampment known as 'The
Jungle' that has built up near the northern French coastal town
of Calais containing migrants aiming to travel to the UK.
The situation in Ventimiglia deteriorated after a group of
300 migrants and asylum seekers forced a police cordon, jumped
into the sea and swam to France on Friday.
Some of the asylum seekers simply ran across the border,
breaking through a French police cordon and onto the crowded
beaches beyond.
Many were eventually returned to Italy.
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