Italy wants tougher EU rules on migration to limit COVID-19 risks

The European Union (EU), on Wednesday said it would adopt tougher common rules on arrivals from outside the bloc to limit COVID-19 contagion risks, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said.

Speranza made the request after a spike in virus cases in Rome linked to arrivals from Bangladesh, which prompted him to ban flights from the country for a week.

“I would consider it appropriate to draw up together new rigourous precautionary measures for arrivals from non-Schengen and non-EU areas,” he said.

He made the request in a letter addressed to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and German Health Minister Jens Spahn, whose country holds the EU’s rotatinal presidency.

Speranza said there was the need for greater coordination among EU states to be more effective in achieving the objective of containing the spread of infections caused by outbreaks of external origin.

The Italian minister said out of 274 people who flew in to Rome on Monday from Dhaka, 36 had tested positive for the coronavirus, with another 160 test results still pending.

Meanwhile, the Health Commissioner of Lazio, the region including Rome, Alessio D’Amato, said 135 people on a flight from Qatar were intercepted at Rome airport on Wednesday because they started their journey from Dhaka.

However, D’Amato said about 100 of them had been allowed to disembark and were being tested.

“One pregnant woman was taken to hospital,“ he said.(dpa/NAN)