ROME: The Italian police on Tuesday started to dismantle a migrant camp in the capital's city centre leaving some 200 people homeless.
The police descended on the Baobab Experience migrant camp run by volunteers in the early hours of the morning, Efe news reported.
"The garrison is surrounded by armoured vehicles. They closed the gates and did not allow anyone to enter nor exit," a statement on the NGO's Twitter page said.
Migrants were taken out of the camp and transported in smaller groups to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Rome, the NGO said on Twitter.
Italian activists took to Twitter to denounce the manner in which the dismantling of the camp was being carried out, using armoured vehicles and excavators to bring down the makeshift structures which have been a home for migrants since 2016.
Immigration is a major issue in Europe since 2015 when the migrant numbers escalated due to conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East, with Syrian refugees representing the largest group.
According to the UN Refugee Agency 68.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide this year which means the world bears witness to the largest displacement of people on record.
The UN described the global migrant crisis as the largest humanitarian crisis the world has ever faced.