AKIPRESS.COM - A mayor in Italy has been put under house arrest for allegedly helping illegal migrants, Sky News reports.

Domenico Lucano was placed under home confinement in the early hours of Tuesday morning, prosecutors said.

The 60-year-old is the mayor of Riace, a town in southern Italy's poor Calabria region.

A statement said Mr Lucano had organised arranged marriages with "particular ruthlessness" between locals and immigrant women, and had set up "simple yet efficient" systems aimed at bypassing rules for migrants to be granted entrance to Italy.

His partner, Tesfahun Lemlem, faces the same charges and has been banned from living in the town.

Riace has been noted for welcoming thousands of refugees and integrating them into society to revitalise a shrinking rural population under Mr Lucano.

The politician, who has been mayor since 2002, was listed by Fortune as one of the world's top 50 leaders in 2016.