(AFP) Sicily’s right-leaning leader Nello Musumeci clashed with Italy’s central government on Sunday when he ordered the island’s migrant centres closed in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Interior ministry officials in Rome dismissed the order as invalid but anti-migrant former interior minister Matteo Salvini praised the move ahead of a flurry of local Italian elections next month.
Migration has for years been a hot-button political issue in Italy, a main EU landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean who often arrive first in Sicily and sister island Lampedusa.
“Between now and midnight, all migrants in Sicily’s ‘hot spots’ and reception centres will have to be transferred to facilities outside the island,” according to a decree published Sunday.
