According to UNHCR data, in 2020 only 21% of asylum seekers saw their application accepted. This means an important increase in the presence of illegal immigrants in our country. What could be the next strategies of Mario Draghi to overcome the problem? Not by chance the new premier in his first in the Senate spoke of repatriations.
Migrants arrive but asylum requests are falling
I grow up migrants in Italy. The moderate number of foreigners registered in 2019 has come to terms with a 2020 that was characterized by a massive flow of arrivals. The people who arrived in our country were not only those who, in everyone’s eyes, landed after crossing the other side of the Mediterraneo, but also those that silently, through land means,they arrived in the main ones squares of Italian cities.
And of 79.938 the number of people who according to UNHCR as of 31 December 2020 were hosted in structures of hospitality throughout the national territory. Of these, 54,343 in the first reception centers, while the remaining 25,574, in the second level structures. Despite such high numbers, only 26,551 asylum requests were made during the whole of last year. The applications submitted have significantly decreased compared to 2019. And those accepted? Also in this case, the data that emerge speak of low numbers: between January and September 2020, a total of 29,547 requests for protection were examined (also taking into account pending requests from previous years). From here, refugee status or subsidiary protection was recognized in only 21% of cases. So what is the fate of migrants who have not requested or obtained the right of asylum?
The consequences
The data released by UNHCR showed that a large part of the migrants welcomed in our country, especially among those who disembark, do not have the requirements to stay. It therefore means that many people who do not really have the right to asylum are initiated every year in the reception circuit. From a political point of view, this could trigger several reflections on the costs incurred for the arrival of migrants who should not then remain. Hence the need for agreements, which has also been discussed within the new government, with other countries to limit departures to Italy. The latter is a circumstance on which the men of ours are also working Coast Guard: “You are looking for – he stated on IlGiornale.it in January a source of the military corps – to cooperate with Tunisian colleagues ”.
In 2020 the trend towards rejection of asylum applications was more marked: “In previous years – he explained on IlGiornale.it the university professor Maurizio Ambrosini – the percentage of applications accepted was around 40%. Now it is much lower ”. To influence these data in 2020 were also the standards stricter in terms of acceptance of applications: “The 2019 security decrees – continued Ambrosini – removed humanitarian protection, which was the most recognized case when asylum applications were accepted”.
The knot on repatriation for Mario Draghi
There is also another political problem linked to UNHCR data. This time it was not of an economic nature or of hospitality costs. Those who do not have the right to stay in Italy are unlikely to be repatriated. Therefore, in most cases, if a migrant has been definitively rejected the asylum application is destined to remain as irregular in our country: “The capacity of expel it is very limited – confirmed Professor Ambrosini – We have seen it in all these years ”. The concrete risk is therefore that the population of illegal immigrants will increase: “A circumstance – explained Ambrosini – which would give the population an even more accentuated perception of the problem of migration”.
This is perhaps the first real challenge for Mario Draghi’s new government. Who, in his speech on the programmatic lines illustrated to the Senate, not surprisingly spoke on the subject of repatriation: “Crucial – underlined the prime minister at Palazzo Madama – will also be the construction of a European politics the repatriation of those not entitled to international protection, alongside full respect for the rights of refugees ”. Intervening on illegal immigrants could therefore be a priority for the newly installed executive. A point on which even the Lega di Matteo Salvini, within the new majority, seems to agree.
Asylum applications flood the courts
Will the management at European level of the problems inherent in reception and repatriation, as advocated by Prime Minister Draghi in the Senate, will allow the courts to dispose of the asylum requests accumulated in recent years? Let’s analyze the picture of the situation. If the requests accepted are inversely proportional to the requests, the reason also derives from the fact that i Palaces of Justice in Italy they are overworked with a small number of staff.
Asylum requests do not require long terms for their examination: to lengthen the times are the offices loaded with requests accumulated over time and that employees are unable to manage because few. Most of the questions also receive the denial of the territorial commissions called to express themselves in the first instance by opening the subsequent appeal to the Immigration Sections. And here the cap is generated: if i increase appeals the amount of work to be disposed of and therefore the slopes. Hence the reason for the delay by the courts in granting asylum applications. In 2020, the registered claims exceeded half of the previous two years. If the arrival of migrants in Italy were to follow last year’s trend, the situation could dangerously worsen.
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