The controversial transfer of
asylum seekers from the CARA reception centre at Castelnuovo di
Porto, near Rome, continued on Wednesday after around 30 people
were moved on Tuesday.
The centre, Italy's second-biggest asylum-seeker reception
facility, is set to close at the end of the month, prompting
concerns about what will happen to the people who have been
staying there.
Around 75 people are set to be moved from the centre on
Wednesday, sources said, with around 30 going to facilities in
the Marche region
Rossella Muroni, a lawmaker for the leftwing Free and Equal
(LeU) group, stood in front of a bus carrying migrants away from
the centre, temporarily blocking it and winning applause from a
group of people outside the facility.
Opposition politicians criticised Deputy Premier and Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini over the move.
"These deportations that Salvini wanted are the umpteenth act
of a cynical, propaganda-based policy that does not solve
problems but aims to create chaos, increasing marginalization
and insecurity, and provoking social tension," said former Lower
House Speaker and Free and Equal (LeU) party member Laura
Boldrini, a former UN refugee spokesperson.
Partisans' association ANPI and the ANED association for
survivors of Nazi death camps expressed indignation in a joint
statement.
"The political decision to close the centre for supposed
economic reasons does not justify an intervention with the army
and the police, with notice of just a few hours given and the
forced, sudden deportation to unknown destinations of men, women
and children," the statement said.
Former industry minister Carlo Calenda, a member of the
opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD), was critical too.
"They keep clearing centres for immigrants but where do they
go? They stay in Italy and wander around on the street," Calenda
said.
"This measure is not just inhuman, it is also stupid because
it increases insecurity".
League party leader Salvini, meanwhile, defended the
decision.
"Today we have done what every good father would have done
for his family," he said.
"Castelnuovo was the second-buggest migrant centre (in
Italy). It was hosting over 1,000 people at one stage.
"The State was paying one million euros a year in rent and
over five million on running it.
"So, having halved the immigrants hosted at that centre and
freed up other places in Lazio, it was right to close that
facility and save money.
"All the guests that were inside and had the right to be
there will be hosted at other structures".
A 25-year-old Nigerian who has been ejected from the CARA
told reporters she feared she would end up on the streets with
her six-month-old son.
"I'll end up on the street, I don't know where to go and I
hope I'm not forced into prostitution again," said the woman,
Blessing.
Like many others, she has been stripped of her humanitarian
protection status by Salvini's security decree, and seen her
refugee request turned down.
"I'm desperate," she said. "My aim now is to protect my son".
Salvini has been widely criticised for his
security-and-migration decree.
Some mayors have have rebelled and several regional
governments have also said they will appeal to the
Constitutional Court against the measure, which critics says
robs migrants of access to healthcare, social housing and other
benefits.
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