Ban migrants says mayor of Rome

THE MAYOR of Rome has called for migrants to be blocked from coming to the city amid an escalating European crisis over how to deal with them.

Virginia Ragg said the Italian capital was crippled by the strain and warned that accommodating more could inflame social tensions.

The intervention by Rome’s first woman mayor came as Italy gears up for the arrival of record-breaking numbers of migrants from Africa this summer.

How to deal with the influx has become a highly sensitive issue, with Italians split on whether to let in any more.

Around 200,000 are currently being accommodated across Italy, with some of the country’s EU neighbours refusing to share the burden.

Miss Raggi, from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, called for a ‘moratorium’ on new arrivals in a letter to Italy’s interior ministry, adding: ‘I find it impossible, as well as risky, to think up further accommodation structures.’