Rome ‘Too Crowded to Take More Migrants’, Says Mayor

Roman mayor Ignazio Marino has said the city has become too “overcrowded”, as it is now a major destination for the thousands of migrants flowing into the country from beyond the Mediterranean.

One fifth of all migrants entering Italy now end up in Rome, with significantly more travelling through the city’s transport hubs on their way north to other European nations. TheLocal.it reports the mayor’s comments are the first time the Roman premier has spoken out against immigration, despite northern Italian cities having voiced their concerns on many occasions. He said this week: “We can’t welcome 18 to 20 percent of people who arrive in our country. We don’t have the resources”.

Like many other European cities, mass immigration and a sudden flood of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from the Middle East and Africa have placed enormous strain on public services, and the patience of natives.

Although this is the first time the Roman government has objected to the migrant swarm, Breitbart London has reported on a number of occasions where locals have felt compelled to take matters into their own hands. A feeling of desperation and a sense their concerns were being rail-roaded over for the benefit of ‘new Europeans’ led the residents of one Rome suburb to burn down migrant accommodation in their neighbourhood in March.

Locals, fuelled by concern over sex abuse of young women by migrants reacted violently when the local government announced they would be evicted from their homes while their migrant neighbours would continue to live for free, paid for by the taxpayer. Chanting “the blacks have to go”, locals threw rocks and bottles at the migrant accommodation before it was finally burnt down.

Residents of Treviso, Italy, didn’t want to wait for their new neighbours to arrive last month. Flatscreen televisions, furniture, and bedding were dragged out of flats prepared for the arrival of 100 asylum seekers and burnt in the street after the ordinary inhabitants found that what they had paid for with mortgages was being given away free to foreigners.

One resident remarked: “They have transformed our homes, which we paid for with our mortgages, into a refugee camp”. The migrants were rehoused in a disused police station.

Despite the Roman mayor’s comments, the pressure on Rome’s public services are unlikely to be relieved soon, as the constant stream of new arrivals continues unabated. Breitbart London reported yesterday that more than 2,000 new migrants had been ‘rescued’ from unseaworthy boats over the long weekend alone, with a further unknown quantity of people coming ashore undetected. There have been at least 90,000 this year so far that the Italian government is aware of.

Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com