Italy has joined the list of countries that are fed up with mass migration. In an effort to take back their country voters gave the victory in a recent election to Italy’s Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Salvini is a hardliner against mass migration and that was the platform he ran on. He has set up two main priorities. To reduce the number of immigrants entering Italy and speeding up the process of deporting those who are already there. (American politicians, pay attention, being pro-immigration won’t get Republicans elected) He told the immigrants that the gravy train is over.
Salvini will find deporting current immigrants to be a hard thing to do because many of the countries do not want to take the immigrants back. Italy has become the main entry point for the immigrants in Europe. At first, it was not so bad because the immigrants left Italy for other European countries but because of countries changing their immigration rules, most immigrants now stay in Italy. Only time will tell if Salvini can deliver on his campaign promises.
To speed up deportations — of which there were just 6,500 in 2017 — Salvini will have to increase the number of detention centres and sign agreements with origin countries, many of which are not eager to re-receive their citizens.
In a bid to find funds, Salvini is eying the billions of euros set aside every year to deal with the demands of the asylum seekers.
In 2017, the former government announced a budget of some 4.2 billion euros for migrants, of which 18 percent is for rescues at sea, 13 percent for health care, and 65 percent for migrant reception centers, which host some 170,000 people.
“The good times for illegals is over — get ready to pack your bags,” he said Saturday at a rally in Italy’s north.
“Countries need to start doing their job and no more smugglers should be docking in Italian ports,” he said in a swipe at the NGOs organizing rescues at sea, which he has regularly accused of complicity with people traffickers.