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Italy: PM defends diversion of refugee boats back to Libya L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy's holding centres for immigrants are like 'concentration camps', Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday, adding it was more humane to send migrant boats back to Libya than let them enter Italy. Berlusconi's government has drawn strong criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups for its new policy of diverting migrants intercepted at sea back to Libya. 'I think it is much easier ... to examine individual situations in the country of origin, otherwise they come here and go to a camp which, I should not be saying this, is very similar to a concentration camp,' Berlusconi told reporters. Reuters

Italy: Gov't, U.N. refugee agency spar over immigration policy (ANSA) - Rome, May 18 - The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR on Monday rebuffed an Italian minister's attack against its representatives in Italy, calling his remarks unacceptable and unmotivated.... Italy: President warns against growing xenophobia President Giorgio Napolitano warned Thursday that intolerance and xenophobia posed a danger for Italy as the lower house of Parliament approved wide-ranging security legislation that includes measures toughening Italian immigration... Italy: MPs vote to fine illegals, jail those who harbor them Italian MPs have voted to fine 'illegal' immigrants up to 10,000 euros (£8,977) and jail people who house them. The legislation, which was approved on Wednesday by 316 ballots to...

More Italy Immigration News

Italy: Foreign Min. says asylum seekers can apply before arrival

Illegal immigrants could apply for asylum in Europe from their consulates in North African transit countries or their initial requests could be handled by the captains of patrol vessels that intercept people smuggling boats in the Mediterranean, according to Italy's...
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Italy: U.N. refugee agency requests halt to return of migrants

ROME (AP) - The U.N. refugee agency called on Italy on Friday to stop returning migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Libya because some might deserve asylum. But Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government vowed to go ahead with the crackdown on...
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Italy: President denounces harsh tone in immigration debate

Rome, 14 May (AKI) - Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano on Thursday condemned what he called 'too much xenophobic rhetoric' in Italy. 'A public rhetoric is spreading that does not hesitate - also in Italy - to incorporate intolerant and xenophobic...
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Italy: Italy provides Libya with aid in patrolling waters

Italy has given three patrol boats to Libya as part of an agreement between the two countries to stem the flow of migrants illegally reaching Italian shores. Italy's conservative government is cracking down on illegal immigration. The Interior Ministry says...
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Italy: Tiny island overburdened by continuous influx of illegals

Hidden amid the hedges and stone walls of this sun-baked holiday island is the final resting place for dozens of boats that have brought thousands of illegal immigrants from North Africa in search of a new life in Europe. Their...
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Italy: Parliament votes to make illegal migration a crime

Italy's lower chamber of parliament passed a hotly debated bill Wednesday making it a crime to enter or stay in Italy illegally - the latest effort by Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative forces to crack down on illegal migration. To ensure...
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Italy: U.N. wants gov't to accept deported asylum seekers

The United Nations called on Italy yesterday to take back African asylum seekers among hundreds who have been forcibly returned to Libya under a new policy that has been condemned by Italian bishops and the Council of Europe. Italy says...
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Italy: Two men charged in scheme to recruit terrorists

Two men have been charged in Italy with recruiting Muslim combatants and suicide bombers for attacks in France and Britain, police said Tuesday. 'With today's arrests we have perhaps avoided something far more serious because these two individuals were part...
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Italy: 69 migrants taken to Sicily after Malta refuses entry

The Italian authorities yesterday ordered the navy frigate Spica to head to Sicily after the Maltese government outrightly refused to accept a landing of 69 immigrants who were fished out of the sea some 65 miles off Lampedusa. It was...
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Italy: 227 illegal entrants returned to Libya

The Italian government said Thursday that the return of 227 migrants to Libya before they could land in Italy should be adopted as the new model for dealing with illegal immigration and be extended to the rest of Europe. "For...
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Italy: 200 rescued migrants returned to Libya

Italy shipped more than 200 migrants who had been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea back to Libya on Thursday as Rome pressed its crackdown on illegal immigration. Customs and border police Cmdr. Francesco Maugeri, based on the tiny Sicilian island...
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Italy: Gov't allows entry to previously banned and stranded illegals

Rome -- Italy agreed Sunday night to accept 140 migrants stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship that rescued them in the Mediterranean, ending a four-day standoff with Malta about who would take them in. The Italian government 'has decided to...
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Italy: Gov't demands Maltese honor commitments to police immigration

Rome (ANSA) -- ''I have asked, and continue to ask, that Malta respect the commitments that it decided to take on through international agreements, which they are currently not doing, thereby harming Italy'', said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni today. Speaking...
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Italy: Rights watchdog chastises gov't on immigration

Strasbourg (AKI) -- Europe's top human rights watchdog on Thursday expressed 'deep concern' over the conservative Italian government's hardline immigration policies, including plans to make illegal immigration a crime and a controversial census of Sinti and Roma Gypsies in Italy....
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Italy: Over 300 illegals arrive on southern islet

Lampedusa, Italy - More than 300 would-be migrants landed Thursday on the Italian islet of Lampedusa when three vessels carrying them were escorted to shore by authorities. The first and largest group - 239 people including 45 women and two...
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Italy: Immigrants share in effects of recent earthquake

L'Aquila, Italy (AP) -- Among the thousands of people hard-hit by Italy's earthquake last week are a large number of immigrants who have seen the lives they built for themselves in a new land destroyed in an instant. While Italians...
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Italy: Lawmakers reject extension of detention periods

Rome (DPA) -- Italian lawmakers rejected a bid Wednesday to triple the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres, in a rare defeat for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition. In a narrow vote, opposition deputies...
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Italy: Afghani minors arrive via Turkey, Greece for life on streets

Rome (DPA) -- Hundreds of Afghan children who make up the majority of unaccompanied minors living on the streets of Rome mostly arrive in Italy following hazardous journeys through Greece and Turkey and the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Italian...
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Italy: Rome to expand welfare programs serving foreign youths

Rome (AFP) -- The discovery of 24 unaccompanied minors holed up below a Rome rail station has left city officials scurrying to reinforce the Italian capital's social safety net, press reports said Sunday. 'Some situations are a disgrace to the...
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Italy: Magazine targets isolated Muslim women

Milan (AP) -- On one side of a drab street in working-class Milan, a squat structure houses a conservative mosque that was once believed to be a hub of radical Islam in Italy. Even now, after a government crackdown drove...
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Italy: Town's plan for segregated buses sparks outrage

Rome (Reuters) -- Plans for separate bus routes for residents and immigrants in the southern Italian town of Foggia sparked allegations of discrimination on Thursday and revived a debate over the treatment of non-EU citizens. Authorities in Foggia, in the...
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Italy: Coastal city emphasizes integration

Riace migrant project provides hope Calabrian town offers training and jobs to foreigners ANSA (Italy), April 1, 2009 Riace, Italy (ANSA) -- A tiny seaside town in southern Italy is bucking the usual trend of hostility towards foreign newcomers and...
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Italy: Joint patrols with Libya set to begin May 10

Brussels -- The problem of illegal immigrants reaching Malta from Libya could be resolved come May 15 if a declaration made by Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni comes to fruition. Reacting to another 'invasion' of immigrants in Sicily, Mr...
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Italy: Interior Minister forecasts end to unauthorized landings

Milan (ANSA) -- Illegal immigrant landings on Italy's southern coasts will stop on May 15 when Italy and Libya begin joint patrols of the Libyan coast to discourage boats setting off, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Monday. The joint patrols...
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Italy: 350 illegal entrants arrive on Sicilian coast

Siracusa (AGI) -- Two rafts carrying immigrants landed over the night on the eastern coast of Sicily. One hundred landed in Scoglitti near Ragusa after having been brought onto shore by the Pozzallo port authorities, while another 250 landed in...
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Italy: Authorities search for operator of illegal tenement

Italian police and prosecutors were searching yesterday for the owner of a 'hotel' in the centre of Milan where immigrants lived in squalor directly below a pavement on a city street. The Chinese 'guests', who paid as little as €50...
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Italy: Figures show nation hosts two million foreigners

Rome (AKI) -- The Italian government's hardline measures to restrict immigration have not deterred an influx of foreigners from outside Europe. New statistics released on Monday show that there are more than two million residents from outside the European Union...
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Italy: Female immigrants flock to north east

Venice (AKI) -- Italy's northeastern industrial Veneto region attracts the biggest share of the country's female immigrants. According to a monthly statistical report published by the region on Wednesday, women made up almost half or 48 percent of Veneto's 457,000...
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Italy: Minister suggest 30% cap on foreigners in classrooms

'There have been cases in which entire classes are made up of immigrant students, which is not ideal for true integration,' said Mariastella Gelmini, of the Right-wing People of Freedom Party. Mrs Gelmini said at Italian parents were refusing to...
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Italy: Minister suggest max ratio of 30% foreign students in public classes

Italy's education minister has unveiled plans to set a 30% limit per class on immigrant pupils in an attempt to avoid ghettoes, as the number of foreign children attending Italian schools soars. Maria Stella Gelmini floated the plans as concern...
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