The Mayor of Rome calls for a halt to migration:
Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, on Tuesday asked the interior ministry for migrant arrivals to the capital to be suspended. “I find it impossible, as well as risky, to think up further accommodation structures,” said Raggi in a letter sent to Paola Basilone, the prefect of Rome, in which she called for a “moratorium” on further new arrivals.
The mayor cited as reasons for the request the “strong migratory presence” in the capital and “the continued influx of foreign citizens”.
According to the most recent figures published by the administration, on January 1st 2016 there were approximately 364,632 foreigners living in Rome, amounting to 12.7 percent of the total population.
This was more or less the same as the previous year, but represented an increase of 6.2 points since the year 2000. And according to the Roman Observatory on Migration, Lazio is the Italian region with the second highest number of migrants, outdone only by Lombardy.
Across Italy as a whole, around 8.3 percent of the population is foreign, according to Istat figures which were also released on Tuesday.
In Rome, around half of the foreign population were from Europe, with Romania the best represented country.
Stopping the inflow is the first step. The next step will be in the next 4-6 years, when the outflows begin.