Italian Foreign Minister Paolo
Gentiloni on Friday called for European Asylum rights to be
established as Mattel Salvini, raucous leader of the xenophobic
Northern League party, called for the closure of a refugee
centre after one of its residents was arrested for the alleged
murder of an elderly Sicilian couple.
Speaking in Luxembourg, Gentiloni said that "we have to
move towards joint European asylum rights -- it won't be simple,
but if we don't do it and we leave each country to deal with the
problems, I think we risk a lot regarding (the) Schengen (free
movement accords)".
The principle where asylum is granted by the country of
arrival must be overcome, he added. At present that principle is
enshrined in the Dublin regulation, which many EU members want
to see changed.
In Sicily, Salvini visited the Cara refugee reception
centre at Mineo near Catania on Friday, calling for its closure.
The centre hit headlines after one resident was arrested
for the alleged slaying of a couple in their home in Palagonia,
and the suspected rape of the woman.
"Even the bishops' newspaper, the 5-Star Movement and Forza
Italia are calling for the closure of the Cara (centre),"
Salvini said. "All that's left are the baby Jesus and martians
to call for closing this out-in-the-open shame, whose management
has involved even the cooperatives of Rome's Mafia Capitale".
Salvini questioned whether all of its residents were actual
political refugees requesting asylum.
"This is the fourth time I've come here. I don't know how
many other investigations, how many other interventions and
murders and disasters still have to happen to close the Cara di
Mineo. Here hundreds of millions of euros have been thrown
away."
"Today I'm going to ask the nationality of the residents and
we'll see how many of the resident immigrants are truly fleeing
from war."
Salvini claimed the migrant crisis can be resolved "speeding
up procedures to identify true refugees and deporting all of
those who aren't actual asylum seekers".
"But landings in Sicily and Calabria also have to be
blocked, and there needs to be action in Africa."
Salvini also tweeted disapproval of European leaders'
handling of the immigrant crisis.
"Europe will punish member states that don't welcome
immigrants enough? Clowns. The umpteenth proof that this Europe
is a dangerous cage."
"The EU and Italy have an embargo against the Syrian
government and are accomplices to the ISIS massacres. Those
images should wake up the consciences of those who pretend to be
good but are actually true assassins," Salvini said.
The images he referred to were photos distributed on social
media in recent days of a three-year-old Syrian boy who washed
up on a Turkish beach after drowning in an attempt to flee
Syria.
Salvini also called European leaders "ridiculous" and said
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "best effort is to say 'I'll
take the Syrians', the only people who are fleeing war, as if to
say, 'I choose who I want and you can keep the rest," he said.
Upon leaving the centre, Salvini poured scorn on opening
humanitarian corridors in Syria to allow for safe passage of
refugees.
"There 40% of the territory is occupied by the Islamic
caliphate, so there, truly, you'd need to intervene with bombs
to exterminate those beasts."
In Ankara, meanwhile, Finance and labour ministers from the
world's 20 wealthiest countries met for the G20 summit to
discuss economic recovery with attention expected to focus
heavily on Europe's current immigration crisis.
German Labour Minister Andrea Nahles said the immigration
crisis could have an impact on the very idea of Europe.
Germany expects 800,000 immigrants this year, with an
economy equipped to handle such an influx, and is already
preparing measures to make it easier for migrants to enter the
country's labour market.
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