African asylum-seeker to be deported: Italian Minister

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Rome, Sep 1 (IANS/AKI) A Ghanaian asylum-seeker who tried to burgle a police chief's home in the Sicilian port city of Catania and attacked him will be deported "immediately", Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said.

"This supposed refugee will receive no favours and will be immediately expelled," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Friday, making reference to a government decree that orders the deportation of any asylum-seeker accused of a crime.

"Sheer madness. In Catania, Police Commissioner Nuccio Garozzo was beaten in a bloody attack in his own home by a gang of immigrants, one of whom is a Gambian being sheltered by Italy for 'humanitarian reasons'," Salvini went on -- apparently mistaking Garazzo's alleged assailant's nationality.

Salvini expressed solidarity with Garazzo, whom he said he had spoken to by phone and who required 80 stitches for his wounds.

"Whoever brings war to the homestead is not welcome," Salvini wrote, adding that one of the government's priorities was to legalise "legitimate self-defence".

--IANS/AKI
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