Rome’s mayor does not want more migrants in Italian capital

The Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, told the Italian interior ministry on Tuesday that it is “impossible” to have more migrants in the capital, Anadolu has reported.

“I find it impossible, as well as risky, to think up further accommodation structures,” she told the ministry in a formal letter.

The already “strong migratory presence” in Rome and “the continued influx of foreign citizens” are the reasons given by the mayor for not wanting more migrants. “The city’s administration hopes that the government considers the potential destructive consequences for receiving more refugees in Rome due to the social costs and security measures,” she added.

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Mayor Raggi’s comments came just two days after her political party, the Five State Movement, failed to attract more than 10 per cent of the votes in the local elections held in more than 1,000 municipalities across Italy. There are almost 8,000 municipalities in the country.

Rome’s population in 2015 was 4,336,000. According to the interior ministry, the city currently hosts 9,831 refugees.

However, the Roman Observatory on Migration has revealed that the Lazio region, of which Rome is also the capital, has the second highest number of migrants among all Italian regions. Only Lombardy has more than Lazio’s 11,545 migrants, out of a total of 144,988 in the whole country.