Rome – An Italian mayor on Monday dumped a pile of earth on a road leading to a residential building to prevent migrants and refugees coming into his community.
According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the blockade in the village of Vitulano in the southern region of Campania was removed shortly afterwards.
Mayor Raffaele Scarinzi of the Social Democratic Party (PD) had staged the stunt after agreeing with the authorities to accommodate only 12 out of 34 new refugees in the 3,000-strong community.
“We are not racists, but we want the state to respect the rules,’’ he said.
He demanded better conditions for the integration of refugees.
The Provincial Secretary of Scarinzi’s Party, Carmine Valentino, said in his reaction to the protest that Migration is a sensitive subject that has to be met with humanity and solidarity,.
“The government would do all it could to support communities at “this difficult time,” he said.