Migrants whose asylum applications are rejected in Italy will have to pay a deposit of 5,000 euros or be sent to detention centers while their appeals are analyzed, according to a decree published in the official newspaper on Friday.
The diploma imposes the payment of a financial guarantee of exactly 4,938 euros – which the left-wing daily La Repubblica called a “ransom” – intended to cover a person’s housing and living costs for one month, as well as the costs of their deportation abroad. in the event of final rejection of the asylum application.
The deposit will be requested from people who have tried to escape border controls, as well as from people from countries considered ‘safe’ and in principle not eligible for asylum.
If the applicant “unintentionally disappears”, the deposit paid by him will be debited, the text states.
The measure was strongly criticized by the country’s left in the opposition.
“A bank guarantee to be paid by migrants, if they do not drown in the Mediterranean Sea,” responded the mayor of Bergamo (north), Giorgi Gori (Democratic Party, left) on the social network X (formerly Twitter), recalling that Italian emigration saw the departure of “24 million migrants around the world”.
The government “fills its coffers [do Estado] at the expense of the people’s despair,” complained deputy Emiliano Fossi of the same party.
5,000 euros per non-finire nei CPR chiusi dal filo spinato. Let’s check everything that comes through a bank trust, if not, it’s Mediterraneo.
Il Paese is scarce in the world of 24 million migrants and sees the memories of their lives that shape their status and their dignity remains…– Giorgio Gori (@giorgio_gori) September 22, 2023
Riccardo Magi, national secretary of the centrist party +Europe, in turn classified the measure as ‘institutional human trafficking’.
This decree comes just a few days after the far-right government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced its intention to extend the maximum detention period for rejected asylum seekers to 18 months, instead of the current 40 extendable days (up to 18 months). one maximum of 138 days).
The executive therefore intends to discourage departures from North Africa and prevent Italian authorities from being legally obliged to release foreigners subject to a deportation decision if the deportation process is not completed within the specified period.
Since September 11, Italy has registered more than 15,000 migrants from North Africa to its shores, the majority of whom disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, where reception facilities were overcrowded.
Since the beginning of this year, the number of migrants has reached almost 130,000, compared to 68,200 in 2022 during the same period, according to the Interior Ministry.
Nearly all the migrants who arrived in Lampedusa in recent days were transferred to Sicily or the mainland and today only about a hundred remained in the island’s reception centre, which can accommodate 400 people.
Winds and rough seas are expected to hinder or significantly delay departures from Tunisia and Libya this weekend.
Source: DN
