MSF charity withdraws from «inadequate» migrant centre in Sicily

Rome (dpa) - The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity said Wednesday it was pulling out of a migrant reception centre in Sicily after Italian authorities ignored repeated requests to improve its "inadequate" facilities.The decision came as the centre in Pozzallo, a port near the south-eastern tip of Sicily, was due to be turned into a "hotspot," an EU-backed centre to separate economic migrants due for repatriation from refugees eligible for asylum."Despite our demands, the precarious and undignified way [...] in which refugees are welcomed as soon as they land risks remaining the reality for the future," MSF Mission Head in Italy Stefano di Carlo said in a statement.The Italian Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment.The Pozzallo site, which gave shelter to 15,000 of the 150,000 boat migrants who arrived in Italy this year, is overcrowded and offers "scant legal information and protection of rights" to its guests, di Carlo protested.MSF denounced its shortcomings before a parliamentary committee in early November, but since then "local and national authorities have given no concrete signal of their willingness to improve the conditions," the organization said.In Pozzallo, MSF helped the local health authority provide medical care. It also ran a counselling service for traumatized migrants in the surrounding Ragusa province, and decided to suspend that service too.MSF said it would continue to support migrant reception efforts in other Italian centres. The organization is also running a private rescue operation in the Mediterranean, which has so far saved more than 23,000 people.