ARREST OF MAYOR OF RIACE, ITALY AND ATTACK ON HIS MIGRANT SUPPORT PROGRAMME BY ITALIAN GOVERNMENT

That this House expresses great concern with the anti-migrant rhetoric being used by the Italian Government; notes with alarm that the right-wing Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has in the past talked of a mass cleansing of migrants, street by street, and has referred to southern Italians as parasites; commends the town of Riace in Calabria, southern Italy, for its work over 20 years welcoming refugees and providing living accommodation and work in order to offer a dignified life, in contrast to the slave labour and dangerous working conditions many new migrants face; further notes that the migrant welcoming programme in Riace has revitalised what had been a declining rural town plagued by unemployment and outward migration; further commends the administration in Riace for lowering unemployment by growing the local community and economy, preventing the closure of local amenities including schools, against a regional trend of spiralling unemployment, challenging the anti-migrant rhetoric which pits the needs of locals against migrants; further expresses deep concern that on the morning of 2 October 2018, the Mayor of Riace Domenico Lucano was arrested and put under house arrest following a politicised verbal attack on him in June 2018 by Matteo Salvini and the withdrawal of Government funds for the migrant welcome programme; believes that this arrest represents an act of retaliation in response to his courageous campaign against the Italian Government's repressive, dehumanising and exploitative immigration policies; expresses full solidarity with Domenico Lucano and the citizens of Riace now facing repression and eviction; and calls on the Italian Government to drop charges and expulsion orders against Lucano immediately.