London: 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, according to the Daily Mail.
“I don’t want them here,” a local restaurant owner named Maria Grazia said. “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.”
Both Clooney and his wife Amal, an international human rights lawyer, have raised their voice speaking up for migrants and refugees arriving in Europe. Early this year the Clooneys visited Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to personally praise her for throwing open the country’s doors to refugees. “The reality is we, as the world, have to start paying more attention to these people,” the actor had said. “They aren’t fleeing to just come and have fun in Germany, you know, these are people who are dying,” he had said.
Yet the sight of migrants in their own very swish back-yard may now come as a surprise to the Clooneys. This week, not far from their £7.5 million 18th-century Italian villa, with its fabulous view of Lake Como, 200 people had set up a makeshift camp at the local railway station, from where they hope to be able to slip through the Swiss border, which is a six-minute train ride up the track.
A dilapidated tent city has reportedly emerged in the middle of one of the most exclusive hideaways for the affluent and famous. Meanwhile, business owners and locals in the area 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.
