A former military base in Bagnoli in northern Italy has been closed after serving as a migrant reception center for three years. Bagnoli Mayor Roberto Milan called it the end of a "nightmare" and thanked the government, particularly Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
The first maxi-center for migrant reception in Italy, which was hosted on the site of a former aerospace missile base in the town of Bagnoli in the northeastern region of Veneto, has closed after three years. The center had hosted as many as a thousand asylum seekers at a time through 2017.
The last 200 remaining migrants, most of whom were Nigerian, were moved gradually over 10 days by the prefecture into smaller reception centers.
The Padua prefecture, working in coordination with the interior ministry, had issued a call for tenders at the end of April to find 400 beds in order to evacuate the center in Bagnoli. The migrants were distributed in groups to reception centers throughout the Padua area.
Meanwhile, investigations have been opened into unlawful activity and favoritism among cooperatives managing migrant reception centers in Veneto. Three officials are under investigation in Padua and Venice.
Reactions, other centers subject to possible closure
Bagnoli Mayor Roberto Milan said "a nightmare is over" in a post on his Facebook page referring to the center closure, and thanked the government and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. "I recognize the merit of those who concretely solve things," Milan said, adding that in August, Salvini had promised the center's closure.
Salvini wrote on Twitter: "We have freed Bagnoli! In the past, the Democratic government ... had hosted more than a thousand migrants at the expense of Italians. In January, it was 379. Now, zero!"
Veneto regional governor Luca Zaia, a member of Salvini's far-right League party, celebrated the closing of the Bagnoli centre. "It not only shows that the free ride is over for cooperatives and those related, but that there's a radical change in the air in the country," Zaia said.
According to sources with knowledge of the regional government, another migrant hub - in Cona, near Venice - is scheduled for closure as well. "Now that Bagnoli is empty, we hope that we can soon close centers in Cona, Montagnana, Battaglia and other centers in the Veneto (area)," Zaia said.