60,000 fall through Italy net

MORE than 60,000 migrants who arrived in Italy this year by boat from north Africa have disappeared after officials failed to identify and register them, it has been claimed.

Just 30,000 of the 92,000 who have been brought to Italy’s shores by rescue vessels since January have claimed asylum there.

The others, dubbed “ghost migrants” by the Italian media, have been allowed to vanish without security checks and are believed to have fled to northern Europe, according to local reports.

The EU Commission has written to the Rome government demanding an explanation about what happened to them.

The Dublin Treaty says that migrants should claim asylum in the EU country where they first arrive.

But the Italian authorities claim that they cannot force migrants to identify themselves, nor can they keep them prisoner in camps, because of their human rights.