(AFP) Italy’s far-right chief Matteo Salvini stands trial Saturday for allegedly illegally detaining migrants at sea, in a case that could see him jailed for 15 years or serve him a political win. Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania accuse Salvini […]
(Reuters) A migrant woman who tested positive to coronavirus has given birth to a baby on board a helicopter as she was flying to Sicily from the small southern Italian island of Lampedusa, the Sicilian regional government said on Tuesday. The woman […]
(AFP) Three Nigerian migrants attacked staff in a military hospital in Rome after testing positive for the new coronavirus, the defence ministry said Saturday. The incident at the Celio military hospital, now turned into a COVID-19 treatment centre, occurred when they saw […]
(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 […]
(AP) The number of migrants reaching Italy by sea shot up from the previous 12-month period, but in contrast to recent years, the majority of the arrivals didn’t need rescue and made it to shore by themselves. According to Interior Ministry figures […]
(AFP) Sudanese migrant Soulaimen has been sleeping on the beach in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia for 10 days now. With his only shelter a sleeping bag and pasta meals donated by a charity, the 20-year-old is getting by as best […]
(AFP) Out in the Mediterranean, under a baking sun, fisherman Ezio Billeci comes across a boat of vulnerable migrants and calls for help, but for hours the only response he gets from Italian authorities is to “stand by.” The episode off the […]
(AFP) Italy’s Senate voted on Thursday to strip far-right chief Matteo Salvini of his parliamentary immunity, paving the way for him to face trial, for a second time, over allegedly illegally detaining migrants at sea. Salvini, a senator, now looks set for […]
(Reuters) About 100 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in small boats landed on the southern island of Lampedusa during the night, the latest in a wave of arrivals straining an already overcrowded holding centre. Officials said the migrants, arriving from Libya, were […]
(ANSA) A man who hijacked and later torched a school bus with 50 children, two teachers and a janitor aboard near Milan in March 2019 on Wednesday got 24 years in jail for attempted murder. Ousseynou Sy, 47, was found guilty and […]
(AFP) Eight migrants who disembarked in Sicily this week after being rescued in the Mediterranean by a charity boat are in quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus, the group Mediterranea said. The eight migrants were part of a group of 43 people […]
(National-UAE) Italy has ratified an agreement with Qatar that will give the Gulf country an official platform to fund organisations and build mosques, a move that has bitterly divided politicians in Rome. Warnings that ratification of the accord would let Doha use […]
(Reuters) An Italian Senate committee on Tuesday rejected a request by magistrates to investigate Matteo Salvini, head of the rightwing League party, for refusing a migrant rescue boat permission to land last year when he was interior minister. Salvini refused to allow […]
(AFP) Italian police on Sunday corrected a report that a record 400 migrants had landed on a beach in Sicily, saying the number was only around 70, the ANSA news agency reported. A single wooden fishing boat some 10 metres (35 feet) […]
(Reuters) Italian coastguards have impounded two charity rescue boats at the port of Palermo citing “technical and operational” irregularities, which the owners denounced as an excuse to block life-saving missions at sea. The seizure of the German-flagged Alan Kurdi and Spanish-flagged Aita […]
(AFP) After rising to and falling from government with his “Italians first” rallying cry and anti-migrant diatribes, far-right leader Matteo Salvini remains hugely popular and has set his sights on a return to power despite an impending trial. The 46-year-old from Milan, […]
(Breitbart) According to new figures, Italy has seen a historically low birthrate in 2018, as the number of foreigners in the country has increased to nearly 9 per cent of the total population. The new statistics, released by the Italian statistics agency Istat, […]
(AFP) Half as many migrants landed on Italian shores in 2019 compared with the year before, the latest interior ministry figures show. Italy has struggled to cope with a flood of immigrants in recent years and has called on other European Union […]
(Breitbart) A 23-year-old Bangladeshi imam faces deportation from Italy after investigators confirmed he had physically assaulted young children at a religious school. The migrant, who lived in Italy on a work visa, is said to have created what investigators described as a […]
(AFP) Italy’s new Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said in an interview published Friday that there was no migrant “invasion,” countering statements by her hardline anti-immigration predecessor Matteo Salvini. Lamorgese told the Repubblica newspaper that this year 9,600 migrants and asylum-seekers had arrived […]
(AP) A large majority of European Union member countries have refused to back a plan to quickly get migrants off boats in the Mediterranean Sea and distribute them among willing EU partners. At a meeting of EU interior ministers, only Ireland, Luxembourg […]
(ANSA) The diocese of Bologna, which has ordered Muslim-friendly pork-free tortellini for Friday’s feast of patron saint Petronius, on Tuesday said the row over the case was “unacceptable.” The diocese has replaced pork, which Muslims do not eat for religious reasons, with […]
(Reuters) Interior ministers from five European Union countries said on Monday they had agreed a new scheme to distribute migrants saved from the Mediterranean in a deal aimed at relieving the pressure on southern EU states. The plan will be presented to […]
(Reuters) The European Union must introduce a new, automatic system of taking in migrants saved from the Mediterranean, the leaders of Italy and France said on Wednesday, as they sought to patch up bruised bilateral relations. Italy has long complained that it […]
(Deutsche Welle) Although the site is remote, it has plenty of symbolism: Beginning this Sunday, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from some 15 countries will meet in the southern Italian city of Matera, one of Europe’s 2019 cultural capitals, to take part […]
(AFP) Italy on Saturday allowed rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants on Lampedusa, in a reversal of the hardline policy under the country’s ex-interior minister Matteo Salvini. Far-right leader Salvini was forced out of office last month after bringing the […]
(Breitbart) An Italian think-tank has predicted that due to mass migration and differing birthrates, half of all Italians could be Muslims by the end of the century. The FareFuturo foundation released its findings this week as part of their “First report on […]
(AFP) The German captain of rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, who was temporarily arrested in Italy for docking without permission so she could let rescued migrants land, said Tuesday her “actions were justified.” Rackete, 31, was arrested on June 29 and […]
(AFP) Far-right Dutch MEP Geert Wilders on Saturday said nationalist parties were experiencing “tough” times but predicted that they would make a come-back. “It’s a tough time. We will come back,” Wilders said, speaking at an event in northern Italy. “I believe […]
(AFP) Talks between Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party resumed on Saturday after a quarrel that had threatened to stop the nascent coalition in its tracks. Tensions remained however on the hot-button issue of migration, a highly emotive subject […]
(AFP) Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday refused to allow a ship carrying dozens of migrants to enter Italian waters, the latest in a string of standoffs over migrant rescues. The Eleonore, run by German charity Mission Lifeline, is seeking a […]
(AP) French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to push for more solidarity in the European Union over the migrant crisis. Mitsotakis, who took office [in] July, met with Macron in Paris on Thursday. He said the migrant […]
(ANSA) The wife of Abderrahim Moutaharrik, a Moroccan competitive kickboxer who was jailed in 2017 over alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS), has been deported from Italy to Morocco. A court had in 2017 sentenced him to six years in jail […]
(AFP) A Spanish charity which operates a migrant rescue boat in the Mediterranean said Wednesday that a court in Italy has suspended a government decree banning its vessel from entering Italian territorial waters. The Open Arms boat is currently sailing off the […]
(Breitbart) A pair of Tunisian migrants are under investigation by Italian authorities for animal cruelty after allegedly slaughtering sheep in a parking lot. The pair slaughtered two sheep in the village of Bentivoglio in Bologna as part of the annual Islamic festival […]
(AP) The United Nations refugee agency expressed concern Tuesday that a new Italian law authorizing massive fines against the owners of private rescue ships could endanger the lives of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. A so-called “security decree” drafted by […]
(Reuters) The Italian government on Monday won a confidence vote in the Senate on a decree targeting charities operating migrant rescue ships, in a victory for Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and his far-right League party. The government of the League and the […]
(AFP) Italy allowed 116 rescued migrants to disembark from a coastguard ship Wednesday with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s backing after five EU countries and the Church agreed to share responsibility for looking after them. The far-right minister used Facebook to announce his […]
(AFP) Far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Friday ordered 135 migrants and refugees rescued in the Mediterranean to remain aboard an Italian coastguard vessel until other European countries agree to take them in. Salvini, also deputy prime minister, has been trying to […]
(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 […]
(AFP) A charity rescue vessel on Saturday brought 41 shipwrecked migrants into port in Lampedusa, the second boat to defy far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s bid to close Italian ports to them. Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex was met by a strong police presence […]
(AFP) The captain of detained migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, will sue Matteo Salvini for defamation after a tirade of insults from Italy’s far-right interior minister, her lawyer said Friday. “We have prepared the legal complaint against minister Salvini,” Alessandro […]
(AFP) An Italian judge said Tuesday that Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete was free to go, three days after her arrest for docking with 40 migrants aboard her rescue ship in defiance of an Italian ban. Rackete was arrested after hitting a […]
(AFP) Sea-Watch 3 skipper Carola Rackete faced jail time Saturday after forcing her way into Italy’s Lampedusa port with rescued migrants to end a lengthy standoff with authorities. Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer told AFP the 31-year-old German captain was seized after bringing […]
(Politico) German MP Beatrix von Storch reckons Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for his “great contribution to the security and stability of Europe.” “I propose Matteo Salvini for the Nobel Peace Prize because he […]
(AFP) The populist Italian government is stepping up a crackdown against migrant ships and assaults on police with a tough new decree led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The 18-article decree brings in fines of up to 50,000 euros ($57,000) for the […]
(AFP) A court on Tuesday adjourned the trial of a high-profile pro-migrant former mayor in populist-ruled Italy on charges he set up fake marriages to help asylum seekers stay in the country. Domenico Lucano has been under house arrest since being apprehended […]
(AFP) The sign reading “Riace, land of welcome” still hangs in the small town, but its dream of migrant integration is over after the far-right’s “Italians first” election victory. The new mayor of the one-time “global village” in southern Italy’s rural Calabria […]
(Reuters) Migrant arrivals to Italy have almost dried up, new asylum requests across the European Union have more than halved in three years and at the end of 2018, Hungary’s reception centers housed just three refugees. On the face of it, Europe’s […]
(AP) Hundreds of migrants a day streamed through the Hungarian village of Asotthalom on their way to Western Europe in 2015. Today there are almost none. So one might think the political discourse has moved on. Think again. In this month’s European […]
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