France criticizes Italy for failing to screen migrants

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One Syrian and five Afghan boys wave on the platform of the Calais train station, northern France, as they depart for Britain Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016. A group of underage migrants is leaving the French city of Calais for Britain, as both governments seek solutions for hundreds of unaccompanied children in Calais’ slum-like migrant camp before it is shut down in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

BRUSSELS – French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says Italy is not doing enough to screen arriving migrants and is failing to ensure that people who do not qualify for asylum are sent home.

Cazeneuve told reporters in Luxembourg Thursday that “we have to do what was decided,” by properly screening people from northern Africa at registration centres known as “hotspots.”

He says “it’s unthinkable that some of those who arrive in Italy do not pass through the hotspots, otherwise we are taking a security risk.”

Cazeneuve says most migrants who come to Italy want to improve their way of life and are not fleeing conflict. He said these people “who do not qualify for protection in Europe must be sent back.”

Around 150,000 migrants have entered Italy by sea this year.

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