Migrants:after Cutro, the majority is preparing a new crackdown on residence permits

The Cutro decree, approved by the Council of Ministers last March 9, among other things, imposed a crackdown on special permits for immigrants.Since some comments, political and otherwise, seem a little confusing, a clarification may be useful, showing the direction in which the government majority is going.

The errors, flaws and falsehoods of the government's version of the Cutro massacre

From the Security decree to the Cutro decree

The issuing of the residence permit for special protection is provided for in cases in which the foreign citizen seeking asylum is not recognized as having refugee status or subsidiary protection, but the conditions set out in the TUI apply:in particular, if the foreigner, if repatriated, could be subject to persecution or risk being subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, systematic and serious violations of human rights.Until the Cutro decree, the repatriation was also precluded for foreigners who in their country of origin could have suffered a violation of the right to respect for their private and family life, assessed on the basis of their family ties and their social integration in Italy.The decree eliminated this last provision.

Matteo Salvini's first Security decree (d.l.n.113/2018) had repealed the permit for humanitarian reasons, introducing in its place a permit for special protection in some specific cases, intervening on the Consolidated Immigration Act (Legislative Decreelgs.n.286/1998, TUI).These cases were then expanded during the Conte II government, marking a partial reverse (d.l.n.130/2020).

Thanks to the intervention of the Quirinale, a regulation temporarily mitigates the impact of this elimination.

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The bill on the elimination of special protection

The Cutro decree is just one piece of the tightening that the government majority wants to make on foreigners' legal residence permits in Italy.On the same day in which the decree was approved, two bills (dll, C.127 And C.162) regarding the residence permit.

The second bill abolishes a series of protections for foreigners, marking a return to the Security I decree:among other things, the provision of a permit for special protection is eliminated, in cases of rejection of the application for international protection, where the requirements for vulnerable categories are met;among the reasons for which repatriation cannot be ordered, persecution for sexual orientation and gender identity disappears;the ban on repatriation ceases if the right to respect for private and family life is violated (a hypothesis already eliminated by the Cutro decree);the cases in which leave can be granted for health reasons are limited.

Furthermore, the clause which, in the event of expulsion and rejection proceedings, protected the foreigner by referring to the "constitutional or international obligations of the State" is abolished.This reminder was eliminated by the first Security decree (and then restored by the 2020 decree).At the time, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, had detected that these obligations, «even if not expressly referred to in the regulatory text», remained unchanged by virtue of «what is directly provided for by the art.10 of the Constitution".

The reference to the art.10 Constitution.- which ensures the right of asylum to the foreigner who is denied freedoms guaranteed by the Italian Constitution in his country - had a precise meaning:the Quirinale certified that, once humanitarian protection ceased, the judges could directly apply art. 10 of the Constitution, still granting asylum to the foreigner who could not access international protection or who did not fall within the limited cases of special protection.The choice of the bill to delete the reference to the art.10 has a political meaning:it is the message that they cannot be granted residence permits outside of the cases provided for by law, thus disregarding the open clause for the protection of foreigners, as well as Mattarella's indication.

Finally, it becomes more difficult for a foreign minor to convert his residence permit when he reaches the age of majority (art.32 TUI).It will be sufficient for the General Directorate of Immigration at the Ministry of Labor to fail to issue the required opinion, and the conversion request will be considered rejected.That is, the mere inertia of the entity could legitimize such harmful consequences.

The examination of the House bills is currently suspended.The Cutro decree, which also regulates the possibility of residence permits, as seen, has begun examination in the Senate, and the parliamentary regulations provide that the two Chambers do not decide in parallel on the same topics.

Protection for humanitarian reasons in Europe

We often hear that a form of protection other than the international one exists only in Italy.It's not really like that.Different States in Europe provide complementary protections.In Germany you can obtain a residence permit for at least one year, renewable if certain individual conditions or conditions linked to the situation in the country of origin are met.In Austria, the asylum application can be accepted in the presence of elements such as the existence in the territory of family relationships, a private life or a relational fabric that requires protection.Factors are also decisive, such as knowledge of the language spoken in the area, suitable for allowing the social, economic and cultural integration of the interested party.Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium also provide protection measures of a complementary nature and on a humanitarian basis, mostly linked to the integration and adaptation of the foreigner on the territory.

Therefore, stating that the restriction of the hypotheses of special permission is justified by the fact that such permission would be a pull factor, that is, an element that encourages the arrival of foreigners, does not hold up.This is confirmed by the latest data report of the Italian Council for Refugees:in 2022, 77,195 asylum requests were presented in Italy, compared to 217,735 presented in Germany, 137,505 in France and 116,140 in Spain (Eurostat data as of 31 December 2022 and consolidated as of 21 February 2023).The applications in Italy, therefore, were just over a third (35%) compared to those in Germany, 56% of those in France and 66% of those in Spain.In relation to the population this translates into 262 requests per 100,000 inhabitants for Germany, 245 for Spain, 203 for France and 131 for Italy.

The impacts of the bill on immigration

Every law would require its impacts to be estimated, but this is rarely done.

The aforementioned CIR report reports that in 2022, 21% of applicants, i.e. 10,865 people, received special protection.Which, following the Cutro decree, and then with the approval of the bill under discussion, are destined to go underground.A paradox, for a government that declares on every occasion that it wants to eliminate irregular immigration.Also because, beyond blockades in the countries of origin and Marshall plans, and in the lack of regular entry channels - the humanitarian corridors allow the entry of small numbers of refugees, while the flow decree is mostly a disguised amnesty of those who are already in Italy - migrants will continue to arrive anyway, and illegally.

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Why then these measures?In the absence of certain answers, a reasonable doubt arises.That is, the government does not intend to renounce the presence of irregular immigrants:after all, the existence of an enemy to fight is the key to his narrative, expressed in various ways.Furthermore, the more irregularities there are, the more repatriations should be carried out.Instead, Italy makes few compared to the number of those who should be subject to it, given the difficulty of making agreements with the countries of origin.According to data from Court of Auditors, between 2018 and 2021, compared to 107,368 expulsion orders, only 21,366 people actually returned to their country of origin through repatriations, or a fifth of the total.

By the way, why aren't the data on repatriations reported on the Viminale website, while those on arrivals are present, and in great detail?This lack of transparency - attributable not only to Piantedosi, since it has persisted for years - can find various "political" explanations.But if we want to ensure that people are able to evaluate the phenomenon of immigration with full knowledge of the facts, also in terms of the ability of various governments to intervene pro tempore, beyond any narrative, all the data necessary to understand must be made public.Transparency it is accountability:those who exercise public powers must account to citizens for their actions, with the utmost clarity.It's a shame that this concept is often overlooked in Italy.

Preview image:Presidency of the Council of Ministers / Creative Commons via Nigrizia