by InTrieste
Italy’s government declared a national state of emergency to cope with a high rise in migrants arriving on the country’s shores. Friuli Venezia Giulia is preparing a so-called “hotspot” in Trieste.
The state of emergency, announced following a cabinet meeting in Rome on Tuesday evening, will last six months and will be supported with initial funding of €5 million.
The measure is aimed at improving the management of migrant arrivals, including the faster repatriation of those not permitted to stay in Italy as well as boosting identification and expulsion orders.
“We have decided on a state of emergency on immigration to give more effective and timely responses to the management of flows”, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement.
“Let it be clear, we are not solving the problem, whose solution can depend only on responsible intervention by the European Union,” Nello Musumeci, the minister for civil protection and sea policies, told news agency ANSA.
Italy’s state of emergency legislation, a mechanism employed during the covid pandemic, grants special powers to national and regional authorities, cutting through red tape to implement, modify or revoke measures when required.
The prefect and the head of Trieste’s Questura are thinking of creating the so-called “migration hot spot”, as stated in today’s Il Piccolo, to “lighten the burden on the southern regions,” added the prefect, Pietro Signoriello. “Trieste has been hosting about 1500 refugees with the maximum capacity of 1600, which is a big number for a small province like Trieste. About 100 refugees have been living on the streets and some were dislocated to other Italian regions. We are trying to figure out a way to create a so-called hotspot in Trieste, since it is already at the center of the continuous migration, from where we will be able to send immigrants to other regions and thus help the southern regions to cope with the migration crisis.” The prefect underlined that FVG Civil Protection and the Red Cross will also be involved with their wealth of experience and equipment.
