(AFP) What was once Europe’s biggest migrant reception centre, in Mineo in Sicily, officially closed on Tuesday in the presence of its biggest critic, far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
“We’re saving quite a bit of money, we’re working to find new jobs for the centre’s ex-workers, but Sicily, Catania and Mineo cannot base their future on immigration,” Salvini said as he shut the centre.
Salvini said the future was “in smaller and more controlled centres,” after the final inhabitants were removed last week to be sent to another centre in Calabria.
About 50 former workers at the centre and unionists protested ahead of Salvini’s arrival, handing a protest banner reading “today we celebrate the funeral of Mineo.”
