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Refugee crisis in Europe

Italy’s opposition party leader calls for Schengen suspension to curb migrant flow

We need tight control on the borders, indefinite suspension of the Schengen Agreement and military patrols of water borders to send back the migrants coming by sea, Matteo Salvini said

© AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos

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ROME, February 8. /TASS/. The Schengen Agreement on open borders should be suspended indefinitely to stop the flow of illegal migrants, Matteo Salvini, a European Parliament member and the head of the Italian opposition party Northern League, said in an interview with TASS on Monday.

"We need tight control on the borders, indefinite suspension of the Schengen Agreement and military patrols of water borders to send back the migrants coming by sea," Salvini said.

According to Salvini, the sinking of migrant smugglers’ boats in north African ports could also be an effective measure.

He said only five percent of migrants were real refugees.

"Others are just illegal migrants who make use of the situation to live at our expense," Salvini said.

The International Organization for Migration said earlier on Monday that some one million migrants and refuges could come to Europe in 2016.

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