Rome - Italy began releasing illegal immigrants from detention centres yesterday after failing to identify them for repatriation, but ministers played down fears they would head straight for other parts of Europe.
More than 50 immigrants in the Sicilian town of Trapani were being set free after a month in a detention centre and given an unsupervised two weeks to leave Italy - the first of hundreds of clandestini expected to be released in coming days.
Officials insisted there was no cause for alarm, and that a large number of the approximately 3,000 immigrants who have entered Italy since a new law took force last month had already been identified and would be expelled.
"Let's be clear about things. Really only a small number have not been identified, so let's not talk about `exodus' or `invasion' because they are false definitions," Italy's Social Affairs Minister, Ms Livia Turco, told La Repubblica.