Residents living near the secluded Italian lakeside paradise of Lake Como are reportedly furious at the migrant camps that have been set up just outside of immigration activists George and Amal Clooney’s multi-million dollar mansion.
“I don’t want them here,” a local restaurant owner named Maria Grazia told the Daily Mail.
“Italy has enough problems without trying to solve the problems of the world,” Grazia added. “We should not have to deal with these people on our own.”
As Breitbart News reported Wednesday, the migration of hundreds of people from Arab nations, Africa and Asia to the sleepy, celebrity-filled enclave of Lake Como was a result of the Swiss government’s decision to close its southern border with Italy.
Now, waiting for smugglers to lead them into northern Europe, groups of migrants are camping out in tattered tents around the Lake Como resort and near the Clooneys’ mansion (pictured above).
“Europe does nothing to help us,” Grazia told the Mail. “Now they make us – me, my family and other Italian families – pay for the migrants.
Dozens of new families and refugees are flocking daily to the Northern Italian town’s railway station, where flimsy dwellings, clothes, and trash are strewn about.
A dilapidated tent city has reportedly emerged in the middle of one of the most exclusive hideaways for the affluent and famous.
“A small number of immigrants is not a problem but now they are so many,” a local woman named Federica told the Daily Mail.
“You see them arriving at the San Giovanni station,” she continued. “They are not poor hungry refugees but they are big and strong. People here in Como don’t like them. There are simply too many of them.”
George and Amal Clooney have been outspoken proponents of countries accepting and fiscally supporting migrants. The Hollywood A-lister and his attorney wife have so far remained mum in the wake of the immigration crisis reportedly unfolding mere feet away from their posh Lake Como mansion.
Meanwhile, business owners and locals in the area — left to contend with the ever-growing population of non-local guests — are fuming.
“Immigration here in Italy is a problem, a big problem because of the huge numbers who are arriving all the time,” a local tour guide named Denise told the Mail.
A 26 six-year-old chauffeur named Santi told the paper: “It is good for Switzerland that they have closed the border to migrants, but it is bad for Italy.”
“We simply don’t have the resources to deal with all these new people,” Santi added. “Italy has lots of problems of our own without having to try to deal with other people’s problems. It is a complex situation.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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