All migrants to be removed from Italian town as far-right government continues ‘war on immigration’

Riace previously praised as model of integration with newcomers credited with boosting economy

Hundreds of migrants living in an Italian town famed for welcoming newcomers in a bid to boost its economy are to be removed on orders from the far-right government.

They will be transferred to centres in other parts of the country next week.

Riace, in the southern Calabria region, has made headlines across the world for a 20-year policy of encouraging immigration in a bid to rejuvenate the town of just 1,800 people.

New arrivals were given abandoned houses, on-the-job training and school places for children.

But, after the town’s mayor, Domenico Lucano, was controversially arrested for an alleged role in organising “marriages of convenience”, the government said the town's policy would be shut down.

It quoted “funding irregularities” as the reason, although offered few further details, The Guardian reported.

It is unclear where the migrants – numbering about 450 – will be moved to.

Matteo Salvini, the country’s populist interior minister, said the action showed Italy had "declared war on the immigration business".

It is the latest in a line of hostile policies designed to reduce immigration in the country. Others have included refusing to accept aid boats carrying North African refugees into Italian ports.

But the new move may prove the government’s most divisive yet: Riace’s system of welcoming immigrants has won praise as a model of integration around the world – and, crucially, has been credited with creating Italian jobs and keeping locals in the region.

The success of the programme led to Mr Lucano – known as Mimmo – being named one of the world's 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine in 2016.

"How is it possible to think of destroying the Riace model, which has been described by innumerable people, politicians, intellectuals and artists, as an extraordinary experience?" the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

The government, he added, was “out to destroy us”.

His own arrest came following an apparent wire-tap in which investigators recorded an exchange where the mayor suggested marriage as a solution to a woman's immigration problems.

One excerpt concerned a Nigerian migrant who had been denied residence three times.

Mr Lucano is reported to have said that marrying an Italian citizen was the "only way forward", according to a prosecution statement quoted by the BBC.

He is said to have referred to similar such weddings taking place in the past.

As mayor, Mr Lucano was in charge of the town's civil registry.

His arrest also followed the suspension by the public broadcaster, Rai, of a TV show about Riace.