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IMMIGRATION

Refugees face death threats at Italian hotel

Italian police are investigating claims that dozens of immigrants have received death threats in a xenophobic letter sent to the hotel which is hosting them in Lombardy's Valtellina valley.

Published: 27 August 2015 16:45 CEST
Refugees face death threats at Italian hotel
The 72 refugees are staying at a hotel in Sondrio. Photo: Pontla

Giulio Salvi, owner of the Hotel Bellevue in the scenic town of Sondrio, north of Bergamo, told police the threats were made against the 72 refugees in an anonymous letter he received.

“The letter contained death threats directed against the migrants,” Salvi was cited as saying in a report by Ansa.

He went to the local police, who have begun an investigation into what they believe is a race-related crime.

“See that you send away all those blacks,” said the letter, which also used profane language. “There should only be human beings at your hotel, not filth.

“If you do not do that, I will set about killing them one by one. Understood?”

After approaching the police, the owner of the three-star hotel urged his guests to exercise prudence when travelling around the local area and to avoid any kind of provocation.

Salvi, who has been hosting refugees since May 2011, organizes language courses, football matches and volunteer activities while they wait for their immigration status to be resolved.

Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant Northern League, gave a media conference in nearby Bormio on Thursday denouncing those who had “to wait for landings at Lampedusa” in order to fill their hotel rooms.

“If you need immigrants to fill your hotel it means that you have taken the wrong job,” he said.

Refugee care may cost the government up to €800 million per year, as it offers private individuals, companies and non-profit organizations up to €35 a day per person to host them. 

From that figure, hosts are supposed to give them a daily pocket money allowance of €2.50 each.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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