No. of migrants traced by Trieste police quadrupled in Q1

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 12 - In the first three months of 2023 police in Trieste traced around 2,600 migrants and refugees who had entered Italy via its northeast border with Slovenia, local prefect Pietro Signoriello said on Wednesday. This is more than four times the 600 people traced in the same period in 2022, the prefect added. "The numbers are increasing" and the search for "new solutions for reception" is "continuous", including by relocating new arrivals within the region, said Signoriello. The interior ministry has made "huge efforts" and "we have already moved about 300 people, but many more are arriving", he added. "The central issue therefore becomes one of access," continued Signoriello. "We will see what the Declaration (of the state of emergency) will consist of and what further possibilities there will be to respond to this phenomenon, which is about illegal immigration," he concluded.

On Tuesday the government declared a state of emergency on migration allegedly in order to ensure more effective and timely responses in terms of the management of migrants and their accommodation on national territory.

The state of emergency has been declared throughout the country for a period of six months.

Italy's northeast border is the entry point for migrants and refugees transiting via land along the Balkan route from Greece to northern Europe. (ANSA).