Italian governement approves migrant-distribution plan

(by Massimo Nesticò) (ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 7 - The Italian interior ministry has approved a plan for the ''well-balanced'' redistribution of asylum seekers in all Italian cities - reportedly 2.5 every 1,000 inhabitants and 1.5 for the 15 largest cities.
    The plan was discussed Tuesday at the interior ministry at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, with the participation of the president of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), Piero Fassino, police chief Franco Gabrielli and the head of the Department for civil liberties and immigration of the ministry, Mario Morcone.
    There are 151,000 migrants currently hosted by the national reception system - a record number. Most of them (115,000) are housed in temporary structures and the constant flow of arrivals (the 121,000 threshold has already been surpassed this year) makes managing the phenomenon with order increasingly complicated. Many mayors are protesting because they say migrants are being allocated to their area by prefects without previous notice.
    Fassino raised the issue with Alfano, calling for an improvement in the management of the redistribution of migrants and outlining a number of conditions to the ministry, first of all ''not turning mayors into mere recipients of inflows decided by prefectures''.
    ANCI has also requested mechanisms of incentives for municipalities and the possibility of employing migrants in socially helpful jobs.
    The plan proposed by Alfano takes into account only asylum seekers and refugees.
    On average, 2.5 migrants should be distributed every 1,000 residents, dividing cities into three different categories: towns of up to 2,000 inhabitants, cities with over 2,000 inhabitants and metropolitan cities. In the first case, the maximum number of migrants assigned is five; in the last the number is 1.5 every 1,000 residents. Each city can ask to host more people of the number allocated under the plan. (ANSAmed).