Italy approves measures to accelerate asylum procedures

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's parliament approved on Tuesday measures to accelerate asylum procedures, cutting the number of possible appeals and speeding up deportations of rejected migrants.

Since 2014 the number of migrants reaching Italy's shores has surged, with half a million arriving in the country, and under European Union law Italy has to set up so-called "hotspots" where migrants with the right of asylum are set apart from those without.