Italy's celebrity hideaway Lake Como has become home to hundreds of migrants after the nearby border crossing into Switzerland was closed by Swiss officials.
Lake Como has long served as a tranquil paradise for the rich and famous, with George Clooney and Madonna owning luxury villas there.
George and Amal Clooney's Villa Oleandra in Laglio on Lake Como. (NatGeoCreative)
But the town’s railway station has been transformed into a makeshift camp, with more tents being put up every hour as more migrants arrive from Milan as they head to northern Europe.
Until a fortnight ago Swiss officials had been allowing around 100 migrants to pass through every two weeks.
(MNDailynews.com)
But now the border has been sealed, many are turning to smugglers to help them make the crossing illegally on mountain paths through the Swiss Alps which were used by Jews in the Second World War.
Although Switzerland is not a member of the European Union it has signed up to its Schengen border-free travel zone. Checkpoints between countries are allowed only during emergencies.
Austria is now building a fence on its border with Italy. Officials in Vienna have said the barrier is necessary to restrict access through the Brenner Pass.
But they have faced protests and criticism from both Italy and Germany. During a visit to Rome in April, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said he was concerned as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year.
Roberto Bernasconi of a local Catholic charity told Italian newspaper La Repubblica: ‘We are helping with food, clothing and are also putting in showers, but it’s very difficult, we do not know how to welcome all these people.
‘We already put up more than 2,000 migrants in accommodation in our diocese but there is no room. ‘I do not know for how long we can bear the brunt of this mass of people who would like to cross the border and are not willing to leave Como.’
Alberto Sinigallia, head of a charity working with migrants in Milan, said it was difficult to stop people wanting to head towards Northern Europe. ‘For us in Milan, the guaranteed passage of one hundred migrants every 15 days was a good escape valve, but it seems to me that it does not happen anymore,’ he said.
‘The Swiss authorities have closed the border and that is hard to explain to those who left Milan full of hope of being able to get to where they think they find work more easily than in Italy, or as their next step towards Northern Europe, which is still the dream of all.’
Gianni Versace's former home 'Villa Fontanella' was sold to Russian multi-millionaire Arkady Novikov for a whopping $52 million in 2008. (Luxury Property Blog)
Clooney, Madonna, Donatella Versace and Sir Richard Branson all own or have owned villas on Lake Como.
Italy is struggling under the pressure of the migrant crisis with more than 77,000 arrivals by sea, mostly from North Africa, since the start of this year.
The Italian coastguard regularly rescues migrants from overcrowded boats. (AFP/File)
Aid workers yesterday recovered the bodies of four migrants and rescued around 400 survivors from an overcrowded wooden boat that had set off from Libya.
A spokesman for the Italian coast guard said a further 100 had been saved in two other rescue missions, all around 20 miles from the North African coast.
By John Stevens
