Italian authorities have arrested four people on suspicion of human trafficking and aiding prostitution. The arrests also lead to the dismantling of the group that was allegedly operating in Nigeria, Libya and Italy.
Domenico Lucano was the mayor of the Calabrian town of Riace for 15 consecutive years. He became world-famous for his migrant-hosting and integration policies. In October 2018, he was suspended and forbidden from returning to the town while investigations against him were underway. Now the latest trial against him has begun in the municipal court in Locri.
The phenomenon of so-called 'phantom landings,' where small boats of migrants arrive undetected on Italian shores, has seen an increase with the recent calmer seas. Between Sunday and Monday, a total of 141 migrants arrived in Sardinia, Lampedusa, and Calabria on small boats, rubber dinghies, and sailboats.
The anti-migrant League party, led by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, had the highest number of votes in European elections in Lampedusa and Riace, two places that have become symbols of the migrant phenomenon in Italy. According to Salvini, the result shows that Italians want "legal, qualified, positive migration."
A group of Caserta residents has raised 12,000 euros for activists from the 'ex Canapificio' social center to help them take over a cash-strapped center which hosts asylum seekers in the southern Italian city. The interior ministry has not paid the center the last installment of funding due in 2018, worth 660,000 euros.
Right-wing anti-migration parties in Italy and France are celebrating large wins in the European elections this week but can they and their allies across Europe influence the future policy of the EU regarding migration?
Italy and Tunisia have signed several agreements on cooperation in areas including migration and human smuggling. Top government officials from both countries met in Tunis on Tuesday for talks, which also covered the civil war in neighboring Libya.
Pope Francis has called for the installation of humanitarian corridors for refugees and migrants trapped in Libyan detention centers during his traditional post-Easter prayer Regina Coeli in Rome. While international organizations try to evacuate migrants from the affected areas in Tripoli, there are reports of migrants being forced to participate in the fighting.
The latest figures from Italy’s office of national statistics, ISTAT, highlight that around 10 percent of people under 18 in Italy were born to migrant parents. Some arrived in Italy as children but the vast majority of them were born on Italian soil. A new study looks at the opportunities and challenges of these children.
The court of appeals has upheld a residency ban on suspended mayor Domenico Lucano. Lucano is being accused of fraud, of aiding and abetting clandestine immigration, and of abuse of office. The former mayor has insisted that he is innocent.
The Italian government has issued a new decree related to migrant flows that will allow 30,850 non-EU workers to enter the country. Of these, 12,850 will be employed in non-seasonal work and freelance work, and 18,000 will be employed for seasonal work in the agricultural and tourist-hospitality sectors.
The project "Dolcetto" for cooperation in development in Togo aims to provide work opportunities to cultivate organic pineapples in Togo in the hope of averting migration to Europe in the search of work abroad.