Italy migrant center closes
Print Edition
What was once Europe鈥檚 biggest migrant reception center in Mineo, Sicily, officially closed yesterday in the presence of its biggest critic, far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
鈥淲e鈥檙e saving quite a bit of money, we鈥檙e working to find new jobs for the center鈥檚 ex-workers, but Sicily, Catania and Mineo cannot base their future on immigration,鈥 Salvini said as he shut the center.
Salvini said the future was 鈥渋n smaller and more controlled centers鈥 after the final inhabitants were removed last week to be sent to another center in Calabria.
About 50 former workers at the center and unionists protested ahead of Salvini鈥檚 arrival, handing a protest banner reading 鈥渢oday we celebrate the funeral of Mineo.鈥
The reception center, a former housing complex for the US military that resembles an American suburb, is now guarded by Italian troops blocking access.
At its peak in 2014, Mineo housed more than 4,100 people. Its population then steadily dropped and when anti-migrant Salvini and the populist Five Star Movement came to power in June last year, it housed 2,500.
Psychologist Massimiliano Terrasi stood amid the arid countryside outside the center where he worked since 2011, disappointed at what he said could have been.
鈥淗opes were high when the center first opened and we grew professionally,鈥 he said.
鈥淲ell managed, it could have been an asset for the area and for people鈥檚 mutual understanding,鈥 he lamented, voicing anger at the abrupt end to his years of work, final wages still unpaid.
Local Sergio Mastrilli was more critical. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a reception center built on integration but on numbers.鈥
Mastrilli, a 25-year-old law student, is a supporter of Luigi di Maio鈥檚 anti-establishment Five Star Movement. 鈥淭here were more than 4,000 people from 85 different ethnicities, while Mineo has around 5,000 inhabitants,鈥 he said.
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