The recent clashes in Rome where police used water cannon and batons to disperse a crowd of mostly Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees revealed the lack of a clear-cut migration policy by the Italian government, Toni Iwobi, the head of the Northern League party’s security and immigration department, told Sputnik.

The refugees had occupied a local square protesting an order to vacate a building where they had been squatting.

“The clashes in Rome are just another reason for us to think about the social tensions caused by the influx of refugees into the country,” said Iwobi, an ethnic Nigerian who has lived in Italy for 38 years and is an active supporter of the Northern League’s position on migrants.

“When you have a problem you need to look for its root causes. We have long been saying that the government’s migration policy poses a real threat to our society, and this is only the beginning,” he noted.

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