The Italian government aims to encourage migrant reception at the municipal level by allocating 150 million euros in 2018 for local authorities on the basis of the number of foreigners that are effectively taken in.
The measure, announced by Interior Minister Marco Minniti, aims to broaden the number of municipalities that host asylum seekers (currently around 2,800) according to the principle of 'spread out' migrant reception across a large number of towns and cities.
Incentives to go beyond large reception centres
The plan agreed upon last December between the interior ministry and the national association of Italian municipalities (ANCI) "sets the quota for reception at 200,000, a parameter that remains in force: there has been no initiative aimed at raising this figure," Minniti said.
The number of migrants currently in the Italian reception system is approaching 200,000. However, "any necessary future variation (in the set quota) can only result from an agreement between the ministry and ANCI," he added. The interior ministry intends to boost cooperation with municipalities in order that "large reception centres might gradually be overcome".