Italy’s new interior minister sees no migrant ‘invasion’

Italy’s new Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese has said that there is no migrant “invasion,” countering statements by her anti-immigration predecessor Matteo Salvini.

Lamorgese told the Repubblica newspaper in an interview published on Friday that this year 9,600 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Italy, compared to 22,000 in 2018.

Lamorgese, 66, a former civil servant who has no political affiliation, made the statement after Salvini spoke of a “tripling” of migrant landings in Italy and called for the “invasion” to stop, AFP reported.

“We are not facing any invasion,” said Lamorgese, who took up her role in September after the formation of the new coalition government between the Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party.