Italy spearheading migrant reception - Mattarella (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday that "our country has been and continues to be in the vanguard of solidarity in these years" in receiving migrants. He said "it continues to be so in these days with humanitarian corridors, welcoming migrants and refugees from war-torn countries". He was speaking on a visit to the National Institute for the Promotion of the Health of Migrant Populations and the Fight against Poverty-linked Diseases (INMP). Matterall said migrant urgently needed "aid and assistance" and cited the southern Italian island of Lampedusa as an "example" of where that was happening. "Solidarity is a foundation of co-existence," he said.