Italy must boost support for asylum system - EU court

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 13 - Italy must boost support for its asylum system, the European Audit Court said Wednesday.
    "Probably the support for the judicial authorities will become the most urgent need of the Italian asylum system," it said.
    Italy has "sufficient capacity to cope with the arrival of migrants," the court said.
    These arrivals had "dropped sharply", it said.
    It was also able to handle first-instance asylum requests, the court said.
    But it was not able to cope with the high number of appeals, it said.
    On average, the court said, it took "over four years for an asylum request filed in 2015 to reach the phase of final appeal".
    The court also said that the effect of relocation of migrants across the EU has only been "partial".
    Italy has faced waves of migrants from North Africa in recent years, but the flow has dropped recently.
    The previous government banned NGO run migrant rescue ships from entering Italian waters.