Migrants, the solution is not to stop the departures but to reform a reception system that fuels illegal immigration

The tragedy that occurred off the coast of Cutro, in Calabria, in which 74 people lost their lives during a 4-day crossing from Turkey, has revived in all its drama the issue of managing rescues at sea and migratory flows.The following day the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi he released statements that confirm the inability of the current Government to understand the entire migratory phenomenon:“Desperation can never justify dangerous journeys.”Piantedosi's unfortunate exit is not only harmful for its inhumanity, but because it shows the security approach of the current executive, completely neglecting the aspect of hospitality. An aspect of migratory phenomena that is too often overlooked - and which remains of interest mostly to those who deal with or work in the hospitality sector - is in fact thathe it happens after disembarking or arriving in Italy.

While the number of illegal aliens continues to grow every year, also due to a regulatory system that makes the regularization process complex, the political debate is stuck on wondering how to limit migration.If sea or land crossings tell terrible stories of abuse, deprivation of personal freedom, torture and constant violations of fundamental rights, arrival in Italy does not always represent a safe haven.It is here that a new troubled path begins, in which many migrants disappear, becoming almost invisible to a system incapable of guaranteeing fundamental rights.

Piantedosi himself, in ainterview to Republic last December 31, he expressed his concern about the exponential increase in landings in 2022 which had reached 104,061 people arriving in Italy.Not only that, he also said he was alarmed by the collective disinterest regarding the integration processes of foreigners.“The reception system in the area is already collapsing”, he explained, and “tenders to secure new places are falling through.The possibility of adequate reception is a question of people's dignity.I find it singular that collective sensitivity stops at the moment of disembarkation while there is no attention to the sustainability of uncontrolled flows that generate marginalization".After a few months, the executive has not been able to propose concrete changes capable of managing what the Minister sees as an emergency;on the contrary, the Government has implemented a hard line against the migration phenomenon, with the green light to new code of conduct for NGOs, illustrative, once again, of the inability to understand the real emergency, that is, a system that is unable to welcome, much less integrate, foreign citizens.

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

What happens once you arrive in Italy

The migrant reception system in Italy it operates on two levels:the hotspots and first reception centres, and the second reception, which includes the SAI (Reception and Integration System) - which with the Lamorgese decree replaced the SIPROIMI (Protection system for holders of international protection and for unaccompanied foreign minors) introduced by his predecessor Matteo Salvini - and the CAS, Extraordinary Reception Centres, a hybrid between first and second reception, which unfortunately have become the most used solution.The practice currently in force has not succeeded in its aim of simplification, on the contrary, it is increasingly complex and poorly functioning.

There is a distinction between migrants who are rescued at sea and those who reach Italian territory independently.The former are conducted in the hotspots, currently present in Lampedusa, Pozzallo, Messina and Taranto, where the legal operators, together with the psychological and health support team, help them by guiding them in the procedures for requesting international protection.Here asylum seekers differ from other migrants, who will be sent to the detention centers for repatriation (CPR), real detention institutions, or left in the territory in conditions of irregular residence.

The latter, together with foreigners who arrive independently in Italy, must navigate the complexity of the system, often without knowing how to communicate in Italian, to obtain a residence permit for work or family reasons.This category of foreign citizens is probably the most disadvantaged, because the transition between the status of irregular person already present in the territory and regularity is very difficult.The Lamorgese decree, which had introduced the so-called special protection - for all those individuals who are not eligible to apply for asylum, but who cannot be expelled for various reasons, for example the risk of persecution in their country of origin - is effectively precluded due to the inefficiency of the public administration, which prevents the fulfillment of procedures for regularization in the territory.Foreign citizens with an expulsion decree, however, have a peremptory deadline of 30 days to file an appeal with the competent judge, making use of legal assistance.Even different is the case of a foreigner who arrives in Italy regularly, through an invitation or for study reasons, who intends to stay in the territory for more than 90 days.In this case the law prescribes a deadline of 8 days to request a residence permit.Theoretically, the Consolidated Law on Immigration deals with all the different cases and describes processes that apparently seem simple.However, never more than in the field of immigration does theory clash with a completely distorted, inefficient and discriminatory reality.

Foreign citizens, also due to their background, fit into the social fabric without any knowledge of fundamental rights.In many cases they have episodes of abuse, violence and trafficking behind them;they are vulnerable subjects who try to survive in a clandestine situation and often the same difficulties are also reserved for foreigners regularly present in Italian territory, always due to an unprepared system.

The case of the Rome Police Headquarters and beyond

The newspaper Rome Today took an interest in the issue by publishing a short report in which hundreds of foreign citizens can be seen going to the Rome Police Headquarters to request a permit or renewal:the queue begins to form late at night, hoping to enter the immigration office the following morning.It is the same free legal offices that advise foreigners to go outside the police stations late at night.During opening hours - from 8.30 to 12 - only about ten people can access it per day.No administration has ever taken care of facilitating the procedures for accessing regularization, for example providing for the possibility of telematic procedures or an increase in staff.Entrance to the Police Headquarters is militarised, there is no possibility of consulting an interpreter and access is often denied even to asylum seekers' lawyers.

Even in Milan the situation is the same, as reported by aAltreconomia investigation.“The scene in front of the immigration office in via Cagni 15 in Milan is the same every week.And the risk is that we can get used to it.Hundreds of (aspiring) asylum seekers show up between Friday and Sunday.They form a queue by nationality and remain on a pavement cordoned off by the police until Monday morning.Their hope is all concentrated behind a small dark door measuring one meter by two:it is from there that you access the Annarumma barracks.” In Milan, due to the limited number of people who can access - 120 per week - violent clashes with the police often occur.

The disturbances outside the Police Headquarters cannot be classified as a problem of public order, but of respect for fundamental rights.Foreign citizens spend entire nights in front of the offices, enduring very low temperatures, just for the right to make a request that perhaps will be listened to months later, and often rejected.Given these premises, it is not shocking that clandestinity is a path, often the most viable.The possibilities that lie ahead for an irregular individual are low-paid work without a contract, think for example of gangmaster and its solid structure, and makeshift accommodation with other compatriots, within illegal settlements.This is a gradual process towards invisibility and the impossibility of exercising fundamental rights, caused by the failure of the rule of law which condemns the surface of the phenomenon with the battle against "degradation", illegal settlements, micro-crime of foreigners.

The discriminatory path of the institutions

There are several paths that lead a foreign person to irregularity:a denial from the Territorial Commission, an expulsion decree, the absence of suitable legal assistance.And for those who decide to regularize their position, perhaps after years of clandestinity in Italy, an uphill journey begins:it must interface with the institutional and private system, in which, despite the excellent work of non-profit associations, there is a real circuit in which discrimination against foreigners multiplies.

The non-profit associations present throughout Italy make use of competent professionals and volunteers capable of dealing not only with the administrative part, but also with integration through the preparation of the interview before the Territorial Commissions, the enrollment in free Italian schools , the support of operators for women who have suffered violence and support for unaccompanied minors.However, there cannot be care for all those in need and the institutional system cannot, as happens, rely on the often voluntary work of the third sector.Since there is no widespread diffusion of these associations, immigrants find themselves alone having to understand legal documents not translated into their language and having to find suitable legal assistance, which guarantees them the right to defence.

Some possible solutions with Antarctica and A Buon Diritto

Salvatore Fachile, president ofAntarctica association and member of Asgi, deals with providing legal protection in immigration matters and told Blue suitcase the contradictions and discriminations of the reception and integration system.

The first problem is certainly access to police headquarters in the national territory:“The behavior of the public administration causes serious discrimination, effectively preventing the right to request a permit.”The systematic shortcomings of the offices are hidden "behind an alleged chronic shortage of staff", which is nothing other than illegitimate conduct.

The second crucial point concerns foreign citizens who are not eligible to request the right to asylum.According to Fachile, this concerns many foreigners currently present in the territory and is a much less visible problem in this historical period, but equally serious.In fact, when you do not meet the requirements for international protection, there are very few tools available for regularization due to a "closed system that does not provide the possibility of changing your status, not even by finding a job".Therefore, other paths are sought, such as marriages with people with Italian citizenship or requesting the special protection provided for by the Lamorgese decree which, however, is a sort of obstacle course also for the practice of public administration.The provision of a new form of protection "represented the possibility of resolving the issue of illegal immigration in Italy, but all this is prevented by factually illegitimate behavior".

In addition to the factual and systematic discrimination of the institutional system, totally unprepared to manage asylum and regularization applications, there is also a responsibility of many private individuals starting from the fraudulent conduct of many lawyers and employers, "inadmissible in any other sector, except when dealing with migrant subjects".According to Fachile, all this has allowed the creation of criminal networks in which various production sectors, legal and otherwise, have built a network of interests linked to the exploitation of the illegal work of foreigners in Italy.There is a "mechanism of implicit discrimination and racism, born from a convergence of economic interests".As for possible solutions, Fachile hopes on the one hand for the necessary regulatory reform which provides for the possibility of modifying the irregular status of a foreigner and on the other the peremptory request to the public administration "to behave like a modern country, which treats requests made by its own citizens and foreigners".

Marina De Stradis and Rita Vitale deal with the legal protection of women and migrants for the association A Buon Diritto Onlus, founded in Rome in 2001.The association recently published a reports which brings together all the problems surrounding the topic of migration for the three-year period 2019-2021.The “Short Circuit” report highlights the critical issues of the reception system in Italy, starting from the enormous difficulties that foreigners already present in Italian territory have to face.

“The possibilities for regularization are, in fact, the request for asylum and marriage to an Italian citizen:this creates serious discrimination against other migrants, especially economic ones", explain a Blue suitcase.Even the legislative interventions of recent years, such as amnesties or the flows decree, "have not solved the problem because they are tools that can only be used by those who already hold a residence permit, leaving everyone else unprotected, i.e. the majority.The system thus understood is dysfunctional and must be reinterpreted in the light of real data."

A second aspect that requires reform is the legislation on registered residence, understood as a gateway to public services and the exercise of fundamental rights.“At a regulatory level, the foreigner is required to communicate a place of residence in which he can be traced for public administration communications, but in fact, he is asked to demonstrate a place of residence to request a permit or renew it”.Even in large urban centres, which have activated the fictitious residence mechanism, the administrative procedures for renewal are not always successful.The reason that justifies this regulatory short circuit is none other than a need for "completely illegitimate public security, of having to keep the foreigner and his movements under control".

The controlling and security approach to the migratory phenomenon also has repercussions in the initial reception:“The centers are peripheral, without services and prevent guests from creating a working, social and cultural network”.The hotspot model, also due to a serious lack of space, is not able to accommodate vulnerable people, victims of trafficking and exploitation.“The more people leave the circuit of services - and rights - the more complicated the integration process becomes.When the period of reception in reception facilities ends, the foreigner is alone, he is not independent from a living and working point of view, because there is no interest in creating true integration", De Stradis and Vitale say again.

The contradictions and gaps in the system illustrated so far have, according to the experts interviewed, a political matrix:with the current Government the problems have intensified and information has focused on data relating to landings, pretending not to see the real emergency.The oscillations of the leaders have always had direct repercussions on the reception system, but in this historical period it is necessary to ask ourselves not so much about the political orientation to follow on the subject of immigration, but more about the obligation of a modern state to guarantee everyone fundamental rights.

Preview image via openmigration.org