La Dolce BITTER: Lake Como residents express outrage over refugee influx as authorities prepare temporary camps to deal with growing migrant numbers prevented from crossing Swiss border

Hundreds of migrants are congregating in a park in the centre of Como

Swiss border guards are stopping migrants from continuing their journey

More than 300 migrants have been sleeping on the streets and in the park

Three out of four migrants are being turned back from the Swiss border

By DARREN BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 15:50 GMT, 23 August 2016 | UPDATED: 19:16 GMT, 23 August 2016

Residents overlooking Lake Como have expressed their concern over the growing numbers of migrants camping out in their town looking to slip over the border into Switzerland.

Swiss authorities have effectively shut their border to asylum seekers forcing the men, women and children to sleep out in the picturesque Italian town.

Prior to June, would-be asylum seekers could board a train in Como and cross the border into Switzerland and seek refuge. Now, they are stuck in the picturesque Italian town and local politicians fear the situation is getting worse.


Hundreds of migrants have been camping out on the Swiss - Italian border on Lake Como


The size of the camp has been growing since Swiss authorities closed the border in July


The migrants have explained they are unwilling to claim asylum in Italy and want to move on

A report by the BBC said the situation in Lake Como was deteriorating.

Many of the migrants are staying a short distance from George and Amal Clooney's £7.5 million 18th-century Italian villa with its views over Lake Como.

However, Swiss border guards are now turning away two-thirds of all asylum seekers, forcing Italian authorities to provide temporary accommodation.

Earlier this month, some 300 migrants were stranded near the border and this figure is rising on a daily basis.

Until emergency accommodation can be arranged, many of the migrants are being forced to sleep in a public park.

Starting in mid-September, a city-owned parking lot near the local cemetery will host 50 pre-fabricated modules and showers, bathrooms and a small health clinic to accommodate as many as 300 people temporarily, prefect Bruno Corda said in a news conference broadcast on television.

Migrants will be provided with legal aid on Italy's asylum process at the camp, Corda said.

Under European Union law, migrants must seek asylum in Italy, where they arrived by boat from North Africa, because it is the first European country they reached.





Lake Como is normally home to international film stars such as George Clooney and members of the
global jet set, but now the area is being inundated by migrants sleeping rough

Corda said: 'I'm confident that the people who cannot go to Switzerland will want return to a system of legality.'

But many migrants do not want to stay in Italy, often because they have relatives or friends already living in other countries.

Non-governmental and human rights groups like Amnesty International have called for clarifications from Switzerland over migrants' claims that they were denied a chance to speak to border authorities and that requests to seek Swiss asylum went unheeded.

About 100,000 migrants, mostly from Africa, have landed on Italian shores this year, and more than 140,000 asylum seekers are already living in the nation's shelters. In 2014 and 2015, more than 320,000 migrants reached Italy by boat, the majority of whom have moved on to other European countries.

Several hundred migrants have slept on towels and blankets in the park near Como's train station since the Swiss clampdown began in mid-July, separating people from relatives or friends who had crossed some months before.


Many of the migrants claim they do not have any relations in Italy and want to move on

Non-governmental and human rights groups like Amnesty International and Bosia's Associazone Firdaus have called for clarifications from Switzerland over migrants' claims that they were denied a chance to speak to border authorities and that requests to seek Swiss asylum went unheeded.

Swiss left-wing politicians are checking for possible violations of Swiss asylum law.

With the migrant crisis now in its third year, more people are arriving and more are dying on often dangerous journeys to Europe from northern Africa and the Middle East.

For many migrants, Italy has become the gateway into Europe now that - in response to a public backlash over the more than one million who streamed to the continent in 2015 - borders have slammed shut along the Balkan corridor and an accord between Turkey and the EU has stemmed an influx into Greece.

More than 140,000 asylum seekers are now housed in Italian shelters, up sevenfold from 2013. Italy has increasingly struggled to cope as Austria, France and Switzerland have turned back migrants seeking onward travel.

In Switzerland, asylum requests fell by more than a third year on year in July, even as those trying to enter rose.

In one week, Swiss border guards swept up nearly 1,800 people trying to cross from Italy without permission.

More than two-thirds have been turned away since July, up from one in seven through June this year.

Swiss Customs said this upholds the law - under Europe's so-called Dublin System for handling refugees, migrants can be returned to their first country of registry - and reflects a rise in migrants aiming to transit elsewhere in Europe.

Under Swiss law, its Secretariat for Migration (SEM) must process anyone requesting asylum. That means border officers or police must put asylum seekers in SEM's care even if they are ultimately deemed ineligible to stay.

But many of Como's migrants, including minors, told Reuters in interviews that they were rebuffed directly at the border despite presenting documents showing they sought to join family in Switzerland. It remains unclear if people were being rejected en masse under any formal policy, Bosia said.

Norman Gobbi, the local Swiss police director, has told local media of a more restrictive practice where only plausible asylum requests were being considered. Those requesting asylum only after being rebuffed for initially saying they wanted to travel onward were being returned to Italy, he said.

Carlo Sommaruga, Swiss politician said: 'This situation is an expression of the failure of the Dublin system.'

Lake Como residents express outrage over refugee influx | Daily Mail Online