Italy's Lega Nord Wants More Authority for Police to Deal With Illegal Migration

Italy's Lega Nord party wants the Italian police to have more authority to properly carry out their tasks when it comes to combat insecurity in the cities and illegal migration, an adviser on international politics of Italian Lega Nord party told Sputnik on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Gianluca Savoini reminded that the leader of Italy's Lega Nord party Matteo Salvini, who last week participated in a pro-police rally, promised that his party, if elected, would submit a proposal to empower the police with authority to detain illegal migrants by placing them in transitional camps before sending them back to the country of their origin.

"Once in the government, Lega Nord will give more rights to the police so that they can properly combat the illegal migration in the country. Police officers need authority to deal with illegal migrants not refugees who illegally occupy empty buildings or sleep on the streets."

"For this scheme to work, we need to cooperate with the African countries on a matter and sign agreements with those countries through which the migrants are crossing on their way to Europe," Savoini added.

The politician stressed that the incumbent Italian government accepts all migrants, refugees and economic immigrants, who have landed on the Italian shores, "while the police, who are not endowed with any powers in relation to migrants, forced to stand idle."

According to the International Organization for Migration, since the beginning of 2016, over 190,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, while 1,370 have died or gone missing while making the journey.