Interior Minister Matteo Salvini wants to close the migrant tent camp in San Ferdinando, southern Italy. "By the end of my mandate, there will be no tents left here," he said during a visit to the site.
Italy's Deputy Premier and Interior Minister said that "by the end of my mandate there will be no tent left in San Ferdinando," a migrant tent camp in Calabria. "You can't live in such conditions in 2019." Salvini made the statement before travelling to Reggio Calabria for a council of ministers, which was organized in the region.
Shanty town torn down after deadly fires
The nearby area of the Piana di Gioia Tauro used to house the shanty town where thousands of migrants employed locally as farm laborers, in particular as citrus pickers, lived - and sometimes died - in dire conditions. It was torn down on March 6, leaving a mountain of waste, after three deadly fires happened there over the past year.
Many of the people who were living in the shanty town have since left. Only those who were considered as having a right to stay by authorities were housed in the nearby tent camp, set up by the prefecture and managed by the municipal administration of San Ferdinando.
Palermo mayor, appeal against government policies
Meanwhile, Salvini's politics remain disputed. The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, announced that he would file an appeal to the International Court of Justice over the interior minister's immigration policies during a joint press conference with the spokesperson and attorneys of the NGO rescue ship Mare Jonio.
Orlando slammed the government, accusing Premier Giuseppe Conte and Deputy Premier and Labor and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio of being "accomplices and responsible for Salvini's political positions" on immigration. The government, he said, "uses an odious parliamentary immunity to defend the interior minister from an abduction charge," adding that the country's democratic stability is "at risk." Orlando was referring to a parliamentary vote earlier this year against granting a request from criminal prosecutors to proceed with charges against Salvini over the Diciotti case.