Italy shuts major migrant camp as new arrivals slow to a trickle

ROME - The closure last week of what was once Europe's largest migrant processing center is proof of the extent to which Italy's hardline anti-migration policies are reducing the number of would-be asylum-seekers entering the country.

At its peak, the Mineo Center in Sicily housed more than 4,000 migrants. But as the number of new arrivals dwindled, the need for the center diminished.

Ever since the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte took power nearly 14 months ago, Italy has applied strict anti-migrant policies. The government has closed ports to migrant arrivals and threatened to fine the operators of rescue ships for every migrant that disembarks in Italy. The captain of one rescue ship, the Sea Watch 3, was detained after entering an Italian port on declaring an emergency situation on her vessel.

Additionally, the Italian government has slashed funding for migrant integration and support programs and has helped underwrite the Libyan Coast Guard in an effort to block potential migrants from setting out from that country's shores.

As a result of these policies, the number of migrant arrivals has dropped dramatically. Between January and July of this year, just 248 migrants have entered Italy after being rescued at sea, according to data from the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, or ISPI, a think tank.

That compares to 5,204 over the same period last year (the first five months of which took place before the installation of the Conte administration) and 38,747 over the same period in 2017.

"The government has remained focused on migrants as a problem in Italy, even though the number of arrivals has slowed to a small trickle," said Matteo Villa, head of ISPI's Migration Center.

"They do it because the political costs outside Europe are low and because it strengthens the support of the League."

The anti-migrant, euroskeptic League is the largest political party in Italy and its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, is the main architect of Italy's anti-migrant policies.

"Other countries criticize Italy for its migration policies and Italy finds itself more isolated in Europe, but these policies are also filling an electoral promise for Salvini and the League and at the moment that is what counts the most," Villa said.

According to Ennio Codini, a jurist and a member of the scientific committee for Foundation for Initiatives and Studies on Multi-ethnicity, the closure of the Mineo Center is a reflection of the dramatic reduction in migrant arrivals.

"There was a time when Italy was the most frequent landing point for migrants in Europe," Codini said in an interview.

"Closing the center itself is not a major development. It's a technical step for a facility that is no longer needed. But the trend it represents is important. I think these strict anti-migrant policies are changing the way people look at Italy, and that has long-term consequences," Codini said.

Xinhua

(China Daily 07/16/2019 page11)