Asylum-seekers ordered to wear high-visibility jackets

A mayor in southern Italy has ordered asylum-seekers in the town to wear high-visibility jackets in an effort to tackle the high number of car accidents outside an immigration centre.

The move by Mayor Angelo Lanza comes a week after an elderly man was hit by a car on a poorly-lit road in Flumeri, in Italy’s Campania region. The man’s death was the latest in a series of accidents on the town’s Statale 91 road, where there is also a hotel hosting 44 asylum-seekers from African countries.



Under Lanza’s order, the asylum-seekers must now wear a high-visibility jacket when they go out in the late afternoon or evening. The measure does not apply to local residents. Despite the distinction between Italians and foreigners in the town, the mayor said he “had never thought of enacting a discriminatory measure”.

“The order that I signed only had the aim of avoiding a repeat of the increasingly frequent accidents on this street, some of which have recently had tragic consequences,” he said. “Not being Italian, they don’t know the rules of the road, such as making yourself visible to drivers,” Lanza said.