Italy: Catholic Reception Center for Immigrants Embezzled Public Funds
A camp of immigrants in the South of Italy.
The newspaper La Croix revealed on May 16, 2017 that on May 15, the Italian police arrested the members of a Mafia network suspected of embezzling 36 million euros destined for a refugee center.
The Isola Capo Rizzuto Center, located in the southern part of the peninsula, is run by the Catholic organization Misericordia, which runs many social arganizations in Italy. According to La Croix, this organism left the meal supply control up to associations connected with a Calabrian clan that goes by the name of “Arena”.
Two officials of the local branch of the charity organization have also been arrested: the manager of the refugee center and Fr. Edouardo Scordio, suspected of receiving 132,000€ in 2017 for “spiritual help for the immigrants” (sic).
Again according to the French newspaper, the embezzlement of funds for immigrants has become a new area of suspicious business. The immigrants offer a “juicy market for the Italian Mafia, ever since the State has given them a significant budget”.
In the fall of 2016, the Minister of Finances announced several million euros for 2017. On average, the State pays 35€ per person per day for lodging, food, clothes, possible legal or “psychological” help and Italian classes. But “inspections have become rare, giving birth to corruption in some centers. It is therefore feared that more cases will come up in the next few months. As Raffaele Cantone, head of the Italian Anti-Corruption Authority, pointed out, quoted by La Croix: “This is only the tip of the iceberg; it certainly is not an isolated case.”
Sources: cath.ch / Lacroix / FSSPX.News - 5/26/17
(Sources : cath.ch/lacroix – FSSPX.Actualités – 25/05/17)
