MSF blasts 'ineffective' migrant camps in Italy

Source Agence France Presse

Camps for refugees and migrants in Italy are "ineffective," the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) said Tuesday. "The way migrant centres are run seems to be in great part ineffective," MSF said in a statement. "More than 10 years after the centres for migrants were established in Italy, they are managed as if they were thought of as emergency camps" and are capable of "barely satisfying primary needs," it said. Alessandra Tramontano, the head of medical services of MSF in Italy, lamented the poor standard of medical assistance in the "absence of the local and national health authorities." Tramontano, giving the conclusions of a survey of 21 camps between December 2008 and August 2009, said some camps did not have toilet paper and soap while others were infested by rats.