Interior Minister Matteo Salvini
said Monday he would meet 13-year-old Egyptian terror bus boy
hero Ramy Shehata "away from the media glare" after raising
eyebrows with his refusal of the boy's request for Italian
citizenship.
Shehata hid his phone from an Italian-Senegalese bus driver
who hijacked the vehicle with 51 kids aboard and doused it with
petrol before eventually torching it after they had been rescued
by the police Shehata called last week.
Salvini has refused to consider a change to citizenship laws
to allow a 'ius soli' (law of the soil) concession for foreign
children born in Italy.
Salvini said he would meet Shehata and his family "but away
from the TV cameras".
He said the citizenship request was being considered but a
ius soli law was not on the government agenda.
Salvini denied he had been a "bully" to the boy by saying he
"should get himself elected if he wants to change the law".
Shehata appeared on Italian TV Sunday night along with
another boy hero from the terror bus, Adam El Hamami, 12.
Both said they wanted to be Carabinieri when they grow up.
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