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A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 23 June 2018

Italy vows to expel far more migrants, but it won’t be easy

By FRANCES D’EMILIO — are important to their
Associated Press homeland’s economy.
ROME (AP) — Barely a “They have to explain to
week in office, Italy’s pop- their people why they are
ulist interior minister lost no having them come back,”
time in bringing home his said Mario Morcone, who
message: His government recently retired after a de-
will make good on a cam- cades-long interior ministry
paign pledge to swiftly de- career. The countries prefer
port 100,000 migrants from small numbers of deportees
the Mediterranean nation. to be sent at any one time,
Standing next to two bus he added.
drivers who were allegedly Tunisia has agreed to take
assaulted by four migrants back expelled migrants by
— one driver was still wear- charter flights, account-
ing a neck brace — Inte- ing for about 40 deportees
rior Minister Matteo Salvini aboard the twice-week-
boasted to reporters in the ly flights. The other three
lakeside town of Como that countries with bilateral ac-
the four “fake asylum-seek- cords insist on using com-
ers,” whose bids for asylum mercial flights. Under Italy’s
had been rejected, would regulations, a pair of Italian
be rapidly deported back An asylum seeker from the Horn of Africa sits in a tented camp set up by the Baobad aid group, police officers must ac-
to Gambia and Nigeria. on the outskirts of Rome, Tuesday, June 19, 2018. company each deportee
“These guys won’t be tak- Associated Press on these flights. The costs
ing the bus in Como any- and even disbelief. Some 600,000 migrants decades just to kick out are high — the U.N. refu-
more,” Salvini vowed. “You receive us as Euro- from dozens of countries all the migrants who have gee agency UNHCR, has
Italy’s hard-line migrant pean United (Union), Italy have landed in Italy in the already been issued ex- estimated the cost of re-
policy is in the spotlight is one of the European Unit- past few years after be- pulsion orders. That’s not patriating each migrant at
after its new government ed (Union) and you return ing rescued at sea. Except counting the many mi- about 8,000 euros (about
turned away a rescue boat us to Sudan? I don’t believe for those who managed grants who arrived legally $9,500).
with hundreds of migrants that,” said Ibrahim, a tall, to elude fingerprinting at but haven’t had their per- The entire expulsion process
aboard from its ports, a thin young Sudanese man dockside and slip north- mits renewed. is slow from the start. Each
pointed move signaling who was brought by a res- ward into other European Yet the Italian govern- migrant’s identity must be
that the country has had cue boat three weeks ago countries to claim asylum ment has formal expulsion carefully confirmed by an
enough of coping with the to Calabria, the southern there, the vast majority filed agreements with just four embassy’s consul and sup-
migrant influx arriving on “toe” of the Italian main- asylum requests in Italy. countries: Egypt, Morocco, porting documents must
European shores. Salvini land. Like other migrants at The Interior Ministry didn’t Nigeria and Tunisia. be scrutinized, which can
has quickly proclaimed his the camp, he spoke only respond to emailed and Soda noted that more than take several months.
next urgent mission: kicking on condition his last name phone requests seeking 18,000 Nigerians reached Those designated for ex-
out the large numbers of was not published, for fear the number of migrants or- Italy by sea in 2017, mak- pulsion are brought to se-
migrants already here. of upsetting Italian asylum dered expelled in the past ing up the largest number cure repatriation centers
Thanks to complicated bu- authorities. few years, or the numbers of asylum-seekers there. to await their deportation.
reaucracy, a lack of dip- “I thank Italy because al- who have been actually But overall, Nigerians rep- But under Italy’s rules, any-
lomatic agreements with though I am in this camp, expelled. resented just some 15 per- one not expelled within
the refugees’ homelands it’s safe, I have food and But it said as of June 15, cent of the total sea arrivals six months is free to leave
and unwillingness of impov- I am free,” he said in halt- 133,815 requests for asylum that year. the centers — and these
erished countries to take ing English. “I sacrificed were pending. So far this “In the absence of a lot migrants then often blend
back their citizens, most of myself to come, to cross year, and in 2017, roughly more (bilateral) agree- into immigrant communi-
those who have lost asy- the ocean, maybe die ... 60 percent of those seek- ments, it’s quite difficult to ties in Italy. Italy’s populist
lum bids have so far run Sudan is disgusting, there ing asylum failed to receive step up these efforts” at ex- politicians have proposed
little chance of being de- is a dictatorship, it is unsafe any kind of protection, pulsions, he said. extending the maximum
ported from Italy. Salvini and there is hunger.” such as refugee status or Asked at a news confer- time in repatriation cen-
is determined to reverse Ibrahim said he hadn’t yet humanitarian residency ence this week how mass ters to 12 months or more.
those odds. “Over the next filed his request for asylum. permits, the ministry said. expulsions can happen But that might just result in
weeks, we’ll start working Experts on asylum are That percentage included without more diplomatic overcrowded repatriation
on increasing expulsions,” skeptical that Salvini can migrants who could no lon- treaties, Salvini sounded centers if few actually get
Salvini told a rally earlier achieve his ambitious ex- ger be found when a final unfazed — but didn’t give expelled. In the tent camp,
this week of his right-wing pulsions target. decision was made. Such any details. Jawred, a 28-year-old Af-
League supporters, who “I think that it’s understand- migrants are probably im- “We need to do in a year ghan, described himself as
often blame migrants for able that the government possible to expel. what others didn’t do in more deserving that many
crime or fear they rob Ital- will want to try and make Those familiar with Italy’s many years,” he said, ex- of the rescued Africans who
ians of jobs. this move, but the numbers asylum and expulsion work- pressing confidence his arrived from Libya’s shores.
At a migrant squatter tent that have been floated by ings estimate that as many government would notch “Everyone knows Afghans
camp that sprawls across Mr. Salvini are going to be as 150,000 migrants could more explusion accords. are escaping war,” he said,
an abandoned parking lot very difficult to achieve,” be awaiting expulsion. Often, countries are re- and refused to entertain
behind the Tiburtina train said Federico Soda, who According to European luctant to take back their the thought of deportation.
station in Rome’s working oversees the situation in Union statistics, 7,045 mi- citizens in large numbers. “The Taliban will kill me if I
class outskirts, the prom- the Mediterranean at the grants were expelled last Migrant remittances sent go back because I worked
ised expulsion crackdown U.N.’s International Organi- year by Italy. home — even from poorly for the (Western) military as
prompted bewilderment, zation for Migration. At that rate, it could take paid black market jobs an interpreter.”q