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Italy Steps Up Placement of Migrants Around Europe

Reuters

   ROME - Italy has increased relocation of migrants around Europe,
   official figures showedWednesday, reducing frictions around the issue
   and enabling far-right leader Matteo Salvini focus more onthe economy.

   Interior Ministry data showed that 172 migrants who came onshore from
   the Mediterranean were sent elsewhere in the last three months,
   compared withjust 90 in the January-August period.

   Immigration has been one of Italy's most contentious issues and fueled
   the rise of Salvini's League party, which ruled in coalition with the
   5-Star Movement from mid-2018 until August.

   The new administration signed an agreement to distribute migrants saved
   from the Mediterranean around the European Union to ease pressure on
   southern states.

   Salvini's replacement as interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, is a
   technocrat with no party affiliationand has established better
   relations with European partners.

   "European countries prefer the current government and interior minister
   to Salvini, who constantly accused them," said Gianfranco Pasquino, an
   analyst from Bologna University.

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