Italy expels migrants over inciting terrorism

CAIRO - 21 January 2018: Italy expelled North African migrants over suspected incitement of terrorism, police in Padua, Italy said on Sunday.

The police added that the first person was a 34-years old Tunisian prisoner and was inciting prisoners to commit terrorism.

The second one was an Algerian citizen who was drifting towards extremism, which the police found in Padua almost by chance, carrying a false identity, during some of the raids.

In 2017, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex affirmed at a report that the number of illegal migrant coming to Italy dropped to 119,000 in 2017, compared to 181,000 in 2016.


African migrant sit at a detention camp in Tripoli, Libya, February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

Worker Counselor of the Egyptian Consulate in Milan, Ezzat Omran pointed out in a statement that this decrease was the result of measures taken by the Italian government to curb illegal immigration across the Mediterranean Sea.

Omran also added that these measures were characterized by the deployment of naval warplanes in front of the Libyan coast and raising the capacity of the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept the boats of migrants, as well as the establishment of detention centers for migrants from all over Africa within Libyan territory with a view to return them back to their countries.

On September 2017, Frontex issued another report saying that Bangladeshis constituted the second highest number of illegal migrants arriving in Italy from Libya, taking the central Mediterranean Sea route.

The Head of the Illegal Immigration Agency in Libya, Mohamed Basher said to Egypt today in January that he praises Italy’s efforts to quell illegal migration and human trafficking, pointing out that Italy is one of the best countries to help Libya in combating this phenomenon and provided great support to the Libyan authorities to in regard to those efforts.

Basher also hailed the presence of an Italian military base in the south of Libya to combat illegal immigration.