The evacuation of the second largest asylum-seeker camp in Italy is an element of a new migration policy as part of which the Italian government is taking ever more robust measures in the interest of the protection of the external borders and the closure of the borders at sea, the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister said on the public service television news channel M1 on Wednesday.

György Bakondi was asked regarding the fact that the evacuation of the asylum-seeker camp in Castelnuovo di Porto near Rome had begun on Tuesday with the deployment of Italian military personnel. More than five hundred people will be relocated to other sites in harmony with the new Italian migration legislation. The camp will be fully evacuated by 31 January.

In answer to the question as to why the Italians are splitting the asylum-seekers up into smaller groups, the chief advisor said that if there are too many people in the same place over an extended period, conflicts tend to emerge. He added that, according to the decision of the Italian Parliament, it is now easier to deport people who have not been granted political asylum or who have committed crimes.

According to the chief advisor, Italy has achieved results with the closure of the sea borders, the removal of the boats of non-governmental organisations from the scene and the reinforcement of the Libyan Coast Guard: in the second half of last year, the number of migrants arriving in Italy illegally decreased by 80 per cent compared with the corresponding period of the year before.

At the same time, Mr Bakondi indicated that, in contrast to the opinions of left-wing politicians, “we must prepare for migration as a long-term phenomenon”, and the some four million migrants presently in Turkey also give rise to concern, “they are keeping” the countries lying on the Balkans route “extremely busy”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)