Italy: Refugees 'Left Stranded and Starving' in Rome and Milan
By Gianluca Mezzofiore | IB Times
Posted on June 11, 2014
Italy has been accused of leaving hundreds of asylum seekers in parking lots
on the suburbs of Rome and Milan without shoes, food or money.
The UN refugee agency said two groups of between 160 to 170 migrants from
Syria, Somalia and Eritrea were abandoned near the two Italian cities after
they landed in Sicily on Monday.
They were "found without shoes, disorientated, and without having been given
anything to eat or drink," Carlotta Sami, UNHCR's spokeswoman in Italy told
AFP. The two groups were shipped to Rome and Milan in coaches overnight. The
ones left near Rome were eventually taken in by a centre for asylum seekers
in the capital.
The refugees were part of a group of 1,300 migrants, including women and
dozens of babies, who had been grabbed and taken to the southern Italian
city of Taranto.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees criticised the "unacceptable"
treatment of the refugees.
Italy is struggling to deal with waves of immigrants washing up on its
shores in overcrowded boats, with about 42,000 people who have attempted to
cross the Mediterranean to the country's southern coasts, according to the
EU border agency, Frontex. Last year the influx was 3,362 by the end of
April, according to UNHCR.
Italy has vowed to force the migrant issue to the top of the EU agenda when
it takes control of the presidency in July.
"During the European presidency, Europe will not see an Italy banging its
fist on the table, but an Italy that overturns the table," interior minister
Angelino Alfano said.