Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has ordered hundreds of refugees to be moved out of Riace, a small town in Calabria celebrated around the world as a model of integration.
The decision, which follows the house arrest earlier this month of the town’s mayor, Domenico Lucano, effectively shuts down a project that also provided work for Italians.
Salvini wrote on Twitter: “Who makes mistakes, pays. We cannot tolerate irregularities in the use of public funds, even if there’s an excuse to spend them on immigrants.”
A circular sent to the town on Saturday listed “funding irregularities”, including discrepancies between the amount of money provided by the government’s “Sprar” system for refugee reception and the amount spent on the services cited when applications for assistance were made, as reasons for the minister’s decision. The circular also said that migrants overstayed the time limit permitted by the Sprar system and that conditions were unhygienic. It is unclear where they will be transferred.
Source: The Guardian
