06/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - An independent committee appointed by the Italian interior minister has concluded that detention centres for immigrants should be progressively closed down. “We are not proposing immediate closure, because they remain necessary,” the chairman of the committee Staffan De Mistura, a senior UN official, said on 1 February. The 14 centres have a capacity of 1,940 places and have held 25,000 immigrants in two years. (bc)