Political Asylum in Italy:

A picture of the policies and evolution of the phenomenon

May 2006

Luca Bicocchi

1
 Index

Introduction pag 3
1. The Italian legislation on political asylum 4

1.1 Political asylum, a right in the dark 4

1.2 From “Martelli” law to “Bossi-Fini”, a story of a law never written 5
1.3 The actual norms on political asylum 6
1.4 The harmonization process at the Communitarian level 9
2. The presence of asylum seekers and refugees 11

2.1 The numbers of asylum seekers and refugees 11

2.2 The evolution of the phenomenon 12
2.3 The auditions carried out from Commissione Centrale 13
2.4 The reform and the work of the Territorial Commission 14
2.5 The special Commission “Stralcio” 16
2.6 The nationalities mainly represented and the movement of the income 17
flows
3. The welcome of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy 19

3.1 From Azione Comune to Programma Nazionale Asilo, towards a 19

welcoming system
3.2 The “Bossi-Fini” law and the institution of “the System of Protection 21
for Asylum seekers and refugees”
3.3 The projects actually financed and the available resources 22
3.4 The instruments for integration 23
3.5 Which kind of welcoming: between integration and abandonment 24

2
Introduction
This paper is a work-in-progress; part of research from the Parsec Association a part of
the Nova Consortium, developed by the Equal project, “Inclusion Refugees Network”.
The project is financed by the European Community by the board of 5.1 of the Equal, in
favor of refugees integration. The head of the project is the Italian Federation Therapeutic
Community together with the Nova Consortium present with eight other national
partners. The research is aiming at offering better ways of making our partners inside the
project aware of the subject of political asylum. The main objective of this research is
therefore to present an analysis of the process of the social connection that involves the
asylum seekers and refugees in order to provide them a better welcoming service.
The proposed activities of this research are multiple because of the complexity of this
phenomenon. Together with the analysis and presentation of the reality of political
asylum in Italy, in which this paper is about, the research aims also at producing: a) case
studies on different welcoming centers in Italy (specifically focused on the different ways
of integration); b) focus groups with the guests of the centers; c) in-depth interviews with
the asylum seekers and refugees. This paper is therefore focused on the evolution of this
phenomenon as well as on political situation on asylum in Italy. The effect of this
research was made by desk research already carried out. Above all the lack of attention
that this theme receives from the media and the public opinion in general is reflected also
in the scarcity of the publications on this subjects. In order to broaden the knowledge of
this phenomenon I have made done some in-depth interviews with the most important
associations involved in this theme. The sources for this work have been the research
already done on this theme in the last years (mainly on the web), the in-depth interviews 1 ,
the legislation and the statistical data supplied by the National Commission of Asylum.

1
The interviews have been done in the months October-December 2005, with the most important ngo’s that
work on this theme. In particular the following persons have been interviewed: Filippo Miraglia,
responsible of immigration and asylum of Arci; Chiara Peri, responsible of the sensitivization programs of
Centro Astalli; Jurgen Humburg, representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in
Italy; Maria Silvia Olivieri, responsible of immigration and asylum of Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà,
Luca Pacini, responsible of immigration and asylum of Anci; Paola di Rado, responsible of border services
for immigration of Consiglio Italiano Rifugiati; Fiorella Rattaus, responsible of social services of Consiglio
Italiano Rifugiati; Virginia Costa, vice director of Servizio Centrale del Sistema di protezione per
richiedenti asilo e rifugiati; Andrea Accardi, responsible of the Italian projects of Medici Senza Frontiere,
Ngo Din Le Quyanne responsible of asylum of Caritas.

3
1. The Italian legislation for political asylum

1.1 Political asylum, a right in the dark

The subject of political asylum in Italy continues to be hardly debated in the political
institutional field and is almost ignored by the media and the public opinion in general.
Part of the responsibility of this situation falls back on the media and the press and on the
fact that they have never dealt with this theme in depth and without prejudices.
Nevertheless the main responsibility falls back on the political forces of our country, both
the right and the left. Not only have they never opened a general debate on the topic but
when they have made legislations on this issue they have treated asylum as merely a
marginal part of “immigrational matters”.
Italy remains the only country in Europe lacking an organic law on asylum. This lacking,
besides its strongly symbolic value, has multiple consequences on the level of the
effective application of the right. As reported by Centro Astalli of Rome, the most
important implication can be found in the fact that the responsibility of the state remains
not clearly defined, both in terms of political responsibility and in terms of economic
resources. We can, therefore, affirm that "fundamentally the institutions are not directly
responsible for the asylum seekers like they should be".
Another consequence emphasized by the Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS), is the
arbitrary behavior of the various questure on the territory. The lack of a legislative
reference clearly has provoked over the years a much different behavior between various
zones of the state, attributing greater importance to the praxis held from the single
questure rather than to the actual written law 2 .
Finally, a last aspect indicated from Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani (Anci), is
the fact that without a general law on asylum the application of article 10 of the
Constitution 3 is lacking in fruition.

2
An example of this is the different functioning of the Centri di Identificazione: the center of Crotone is a
close center but Foggia and Trapani are not.
3
Article 10 of the Italian Constitution recognizes the right of asylum for the “the foreigner who is denied in
his own country the real exercise of the democratic liberties”. The Corte di Cassazione has established,
with the sentence 4674 of 1997, that the dispositions established in article 10 can be appealed to the normal
court.

4
1.2 From the “Martelli” Law to the “Bossi-Fini”, a story of a law never written
The Martelli law, law 39 of 1990 is entitled: " urgent norms in matter of political asylum,
income and stay of the extra communitarian citizens and regularization of the extra
communitarian citizens and stateless people already present in the territory of the state".
It is the first national norm that faces the topic of the political asylum. However, as
evident from the same title of this law, the topic of the asylum is regulated within the
more general topics of the income and stay of the extra communitarian citizens.
The only article 1 of the law attempted to give the guidelines in order to regulate all
themes of political asylum. It is important to remember that is only with the Martelli law
that Italy has abolished the geographical reserve 4 to its ratification of the Geneva
Convention of 1951 on political asylum. In fact, also because of the small presence of
refugees at that time the country5 continued to consider itself as a transit country and not
as a country of arrival for the refugees.
In article 1 the law confirms the definition of refugee of the Geneva Convention 6
(without making any references to the constitutional asylum), defines the procedure for
the asylum application and finally provides a financial contribution for a limited period of
45 days as a form of welcome and reception. As it can be easily imagined the norms of
that single article turned out to be insufficient in regulating and giving clear dispositions
for such a complex topic like asylum.
Starting from the Martelli law, the topic of the asylum has been relegated to that single
article and also the subsequent legislation has changed the article’s provisions, without
however repealing it.

4
The geographical reserve provided that the right of asylum was granted only to asylum seekers coming
from an European country.
5
In 1998 there was in Italy 7895 refugees under the Geneva Convention and 2662 under the mandate of
Unhcr.
6
According to the Geneva Convention refugees is that person who “owing to well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail
himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of
his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to
return to it.”

5
As stated previously, the legislation coming after 7 the Martelli law until the Law 189 of
2002 (the so-called Bossi-Fini) has attempted to give ad hoc answers to emergency
situations in order to satisfy the exceptional flows that arrived in our country. Without
analyzing the single norms, it is important however to remember how these have always
had the shape of decree-law turned to specific categories of extra communitarian citizens
already present on the territory8 , trying to regulate those positions that the Martelli was
not able to do.
The attempts of an organic reform that have been presented in parliament have always
fallen to nothing. From all these, the one that has gone more ahead in its iter has been at
the end of XIII legislation, in 2001. On this regard the ngo’s associations havem, in many
occasions, proposed different solutions. As Centro Astalli of Rome reports, before the
approval of the Bossi-Fini law, the table of the associations of Rome had introduced a
document with some observations on the appeal, detention and other problematic points
of the law; however such "attempt of discussion has fallen absolutely in to nothing".

1.3 The actual norms on political asylum

The approval of Law 189/2002, so-called "Bossi-Fini" brings important changes and
modifications 9 to the norms on the political asylum. The law in fact proposes, together
with a general reform of all the immigration law, important modifications to the text of
article 1 of the L39/90. Article 1 of L 39/90 however has not been repealed, but it
remains in vigor with the additional modifications, sic!.
In short the main innovations introduced from the law are:
ƒ the introduction of one double procedure: a) "simplified" for those who have
tried to elude the border controls to the frontier, or staying in irregular
conditions, for time of 20 days as a maximum, b) "ordinary" for all others

7
The most significant legislative intervention succeeding the Martelli law are: the Law 563/95, the so-
called “Legge Puglia”, that established centers for the first welcoming fro immigrants and asylum seekers
and the Law 40/98, the so-called “Turco-Napolitano”. The “Turco-Napolitano” law, art 5 comma 6,
provided the possibility of an humanitarian status for in the case in which the expulsion of the alien could
constitute a violation of the international obligation assumed from Italy.
8
The most important flows that have entered in Italy in correspondence of international crisis are: from
Albania in 1990 and 1991, from Somalia in 1992, and from Kosovo and the Ex-Yugoslavia during the
second half of the 90’s.
9
Specifically articles 31 and 32.

6
 ƒ the institution of Seven Territorial Commissions for the examination of the
application for the recognition of the status (Gorizia, Milan, Rome, Foggia,
Siracusa, Crotone, Trapani)
ƒ the institution in correspondence of the Territorial Commission of Centers of
Identification (Cdi), a close center in which the asylum seekers in a simplified
procedure are restrained, waiting for the examination of the application
ƒ the impossibility to make jurisdictional appeal against the refused of the
application except for those who have already left the territory of the state 10
The innovations introduced have become effective after the 6th of January 2005 when the
rule has come in to force. The real functioning of the new norms, remains however
uncertain. At this moment only three of the proposed Cdi are in function: Crotone,
Trapani and Foggia. Moreover, according to what several associations report, the praxis
held from the questure regarding the simplified and ordinary procedures are
heterogeneous and sometimes incomprehensible. As an example, according to what is
reported by the Italian Refugees Council (Cir), if there are no Cdi in close proximity,
some questure pay for the expenses of travel for the Cdi, and some do not.
Also in some cases it is communicated to the asylum seekers the fact that if they do not
show up in front of the Cdi on the date requested, this will have as a consequence the
renunciation of the application, in other cases this information is omitted, with the
consequences that can be imagined. However, besides the incorrect and not uniform
application of the norms, many exponents of ngo’s have expressed strong critics also on
the dispositions of the law itself. Generally speaking, what appears clearly from the
formulation of the law – that is the scope declared from the legislator–is to contrast the
instrumentalization of the right of asylum from the aliens in irregular conditions who do
not need international protection. This formulation permeates all the dispositions
proposed so that, as reported by Medici Senza Frontiere (Msf), the aspect of the contrast
to the abuse of the right is very present, but what it lacks completely is the possibility of

10
There is the possibility of a procedure of re-examination, made by the same Commission and one
member of the Commissione nazionale asilo. The re-examination must be requested within 5 days after the
negative result. The possibility of appeal remains but it has no suspense effects on the expulsion. As
reported by Msf, the law is not clear in this passage. “What does it means waiting outside the country? If is
a third country why the country should take this person? If is the country of origin this is a clear violation
of the Geneva Convention”.

7
fruition of the same right. The "restrainement" –for not using the word detention 11 –of the
asylum seekers before the interview with the Commission, between the changes
introduced, seems to correspond to this formulation. The "restrainement" of wide
categories of asylum seekers is one of the most criticized aspects reported in an official
press release of Unhcr 12 , and all the associations interviewed share this same opinion.
Without entering into the specific aspects of the dispositions proposed the other point that
has been emphasized from many interviews is, in the praxis, the absolute arbitrariness
and insufficient transparency of the behavior of the border police. Many associations in
fact report of cases of collective rejection at the border due to lack of availability of
places in the Cdi, or of persons denied the possibility to make a application on the basis
of their nationality 13 .
On the contrary a shorter time for the examination of the application has been generally
positively received. According to the text of the law, this would have taken 20 days for
the simplified procedure and 35 for the ordinary one. According to the interviews, the
Territorial Commissions respect approximately the previewed schedules.
Surely the shortening of the waiting times, mainly in comparison with the previous 18
months, must be considered a good step forward. Some doubts about such a short time
though, are mainly concerning the victims of torture and the persons who are in a
psychologically weak state at the moment of the arrival. For these in fact, without an
specific psychological support and in such a short time the risk of arriving in front of the
Commission not sufficiently prepared, without having elaborated the suffering endured,
may result in the possible outcome of an interview in which the person is not able to
express verbally all his past experiences and therefore may receive a negative result.
The other legislative interventions, succeeded to Bossi-Fini, have been Dlgs 7/4/2003
actuation of the European Directive 2001/55 CE, on the temporary protection for the
peoples evacuated because of the war. This norm has not introduced substantial
innovations to what has already been proposed from the L40/98, and 30 Dlgs 140/5/2005
actuation of the European Directive 2003/9 CE on the minimum standards of welcoming.

11
The Centri di Identificazione should be placed in separated structure from the Centri di Permanenza
Temporanea for the economic migrants, due to the particular status of asylum seekers. De facto in many
cases there is no separation and the structures are the same.
12
Press released of Unhcr of 22 April 2006 “Procedura d’asilo Bossi-Fini: primo bilancio Unhcr”.
13
Msf and Arci have referred about this cases monitoring the loading and the first welcoming centers.

8
Dlgs 140 brings two meaningful innovations: it gives the responsibility of the inclusion
of the asylum seekers into the “Sistema di Protezione” to prefetture, creating a parallel
system to that one of “Servizio Centrale”, as I will explain later on–and frankly it is
difficult to understand the reason– and moreover it gives the possibility to work for the
asylum seekers who are waiting for more than six months for the interview, eliminating
therefore the absurd norm that prevented them of being able to work regularly. The more
recent legislation on asylum shows that, still remaining a matter mainly of national
competence, the communitarian legislation is acquiring greater importance. For this
reason, we felt it useful to include at the end of this part on the legislation a general
reference to the evolution of the European legislation.

1.4 The harmonization process at Communitarian level

The adoption of the European Act in 1986, starts the process that will carry in 1992 to the
discouragement of the inner frontiers and to the creation of the European market.
Together to the progressive abolition of the inner frontiers and with the consequent free
circulation of the persons inside the community, the control of the incomes from the extra
European states becomes therefore central.
With the entrance in force of the Schengen Convention in 1990 the inner frontiers are
abolished and a series of common rules for the control of the external frontiers are
established, with the institution of the Informative Schengen System (SIS). Regarding the
political asylum, the Dublin Convention established in 1990 which state is competent to
examine the asylum application introduced in a European country. The process of
harmonization of the norms marks an important step in ahead with the Amsterdam Treaty
in 1997 with which the European Union is engaged to catch up common objectives in the
fields of immigration and the asylum 14 . Such engagement has been further developed
with the European Council of Tampere 1999 15 . From that moment the Commission has
begun to legislate on the matter with a series of Directives aiming at harmonizing the
legislations of the single states on European standards. The main Directives and

14
Title IV, art.61-69, concerns immigration and asylum and provides the passage from the third to the first
pilar, from the intergovernmental to the communitarian level.
15
Conclusion 4 of the Council established :” The aim is an open and secure European Union, fully
committed to the obligations of the Geneva Refugee Convention and other relevant human rights
instruments, and able to respond to humanitarian needs on the basis of solidarity”.

9
Regulations in accordance with the political lines of the European Council, have been the
following:
a) with the Regulation 2725/2000 the Eurodac system – a data bank of digital prints of
immigrants that have entered in the European territory, used in order to establish the
competent state for examinations of the applications –, has become effective.
b) In 2001 the Directive 2001/55 CE on the temporary protection in case of massive
income of evacuated persons (As stated previously our legislation has received these
norms but did not introduce particular innovations in this matter).
c) Subsequently, the Directive 2003/9 established the minimal standards for the
welcoming of asylum seekers in the Member States.
d) A further Directive the 2004/83, is entitled "minimal norms on the attribution to
citizens thirds party or stateless people of the qualification of refugee or otherwise
persons needy of the international protection and minimal norms on the content of the
recognized protection". The latter establishes the criteria for the acknowledgment of the
status and the subsidiary protection.
e) Finally the Directive 2005/85 on "minimal norms for the procedures applied in the
states members to the ends of the acknowledgment and of repeal of the refugee status"
establishes the minimum common standards on the procedure of the analysis of the
applications. The Unhcr has expressed same concerns about the fact that such directive
risks to level the common standards "towards the bottom" and also about the dispositions
concerning the possibility to designate a “third safe country” to send the asylum seekers
still waiting for the examination of the application, as we will also see later on.

10
2. The presence of asylum seekers and refugees

2.1 The number 16 of asylum seekers and refugees

The number of asylum seekers and refugees in the territory has been a fiercely debated in
recent years. The Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of supplying the statistical
data, has often presented these data in a fragmented way and usually also in delay.
For years Italy has remained outside from the yearbooks of the Unhcr just because the
government did not succeed to supply the data in useful times. As a consequence there
has been a financial loss when the contributions of the European Fund for Refugees have
been distributed 17 . With this lack of data, as it often happens in these cases, the political
debate has taken the windward so that also the numbers have become a political
instrument which has been use according to the different political agenda, as is also for
the rejections and the expulsions and also for the asylum applications submitted and for
the responses. Anci states that in Italy there has been an attempt to manage the perception
of the phenomenon more than to deal with the phenomenon itself.
The Ics report on 2005 has made an accurate research on the presence of asylum seekers
and refugees on the Italian territory. In such report there is a comparison of the different
data supplied from Unhcr, Commissione Centrale and questure in order to make an
esteem of approximately 25.000 asylum seekers present on the territory in 2003, and of
13.000 refugees recognized 18 . Actually the data on the presence of asylum seekers and
refugees are of approximately 15.000 refugees and 11.000 applications of asylum
submitted at the end of 2005. At a general level, before analyzing more in details the data
supplied by the National Commission on Asylum, we can remark that the amount of
asylum seekers is relative small, especially if compared with those of other European
countries. An interesting aspect emphasized by Arci is that the low level of applications
submitted is the evidence of the fact that an instrumental use of the asylum does not exist

16
The statistical data in this section are the ones of Commissione Nazionale Asilo, if not differently
specified.
17
As reported in the Ics report, Rifugiati in Italia: la protezione negata. Primo rapporto sul diritto d’asilo
in Italia, in 2003 Italy has received only 6% of the financing of the fund. In fact the division of the fund
was made on the base of the presence of asylum seekers in the territory and the Italian statistical data were
not update.
18
Ics, Op. cit, pag 44.

11
in Italy, on the contrary of certain governmental propaganda. With a medium of
approximately 300.000 incomes per year of immigrants, only approximately 5% of them
ask for asylum, while in other European countries the numbers are incomparably higher
(in France about approximately 50.000 applications per year, while in Germany 100,000).
This means that many immigrants having in theory the possibility to ask for asylum,
prefer to remain in an irregular condition waiting for a regularization.

2.2 The evolution of the phenomenon

Firstly we can see that the trend of the asylum applications formulated according the
Geneva Convention that has interested our Country in the past three years 2002/2004, has
had the following trend:

Table 1 Asylum applications from 2002 to 2005

2002 2003 2004 2005*
19704 15179 14189 11452
* Our elaboration on the applications submitted to Commissione Centrale until 21-04-2005 and to the
Commissioni Territoriali for the last part of the year.

The strong decrease of the asylum applications in Italy is more or less in line with what is
happening in the rest of Europe. There has been in these years a crackdown on the
controls at the border that together with the agreements of cooperation and repatriation
has produced a strong lowering of the asylum applications in Europe. The Unhcr has
expressed fears regarding the European situation, especially about the cited European
Directive 2005/85. Specifically some norms are strongly questioned concerning the
permission allowed to the states to designate third safe countries, outside the European
Union in which the asylum seekers can be sent back even if their application has not been
examined in a Union member country. As far as the Italian case is concerned, this
decrease depends, according to many associations, from an indiscriminate use of the
rejection at the border rather than to a real decrease of the persons in need of protection.

12
2.3 The auditions carried out from Commissione Centrale
Together with the number of applications submitted, the second aspect that allows us to
have a clearer picture of the phenomenon is given by the interviews carried out from
Commissione Centrale and after the 21st of April 2005 from the Commissioni
Territoriali.

Table 2 Numbers of applications submitted and examined from Commissione Centrale

From 2002 to 21.04.2005 Total number Percentage
Examined 41152 74,5%
Still pending* 14143 25,5%
Total applications submitted 51131 100% 19
* 4164 before 2002

Table 3 Responses given by Commissione Centrale

From 2002 to 21.04.2005 Total number Percentage
Negative 11699 28,4%
Humanitarian 5819 14,2%
Untraceable 20081 48,8%
Positive 3168 7,7%
Other* 385 0,9%
Total examined 41152 100%
* (Transferred, cessations, renunciations, not considered, suspended)

Looking at table n° 2 on the auditions carried out from the Commissione Centrale we can
underline some important aspects. Firstly we must take in to account, the high number,
approximately a quarter of the total, of the applications that must be still examined. These
data have meant on one side the partial failure of the system set up from the Martelli law,
because of the incapability of the structure theoretically proposed of giving a response to
the asylum applications submitted. Secondly, such a delay has meant for the asylum
seekers a very long time of waiting with an average of 18 months, with all the difficulties

19
To calculate the percentage it has been calculated the total of the applications submitted from 2002 minus
the number of the pending applications previously to 2002 obtained considering the sum of the examined
questions and still to consider minus the applications submitted starting from 2002.

13
of daily life. The high number of pending applications turns out still more remarkable if
is taken on account, and this is another important point, of the real number of interviews
effectively carried out. These are a little more than half of the total. In fact nearly 50% of
the applications examined have had a negative outcome for impossibility of finding them.
This means that the person who had to be examined has not been reached by the call of
the Commission for the interview. These data are the exact "short circuit" type of
example that had affected the procedure. The impossibility to find a place in a welcoming
center, as it will be explained later, forced the asylum seekers to move into unstable
dormitories, so that it was almost impossible for them to maintain the recorded address at
the moment of the presentation of the application. The consequence has been that the
asylum seekers have not been informed of the call from the Commission, therefore the
result has been a negative outcome of the application.
As reported by Caritas, clear evidence of this is the fact that the asylum seekers included
in the welcoming centers have instead all continued the iter and they all arrived to the
Commission.

2.4 The reform and the work of the Territorial Commission

When the Bossi-Fini law has become effective the system has been deeply reformed and
the only Commissione Centrale has been replaced by seven.
If we see the data on the interviews carried out from by Commissioni Territoriali we see
that important changes have taken place according to the new procedure.

Table 4 Applications submitted and examined from Commissioni Territoriali from 21-04-
2005 to 27-02-2006
Roma Crotone Trapani Siracusa Foggia Milano Gorizia Totale
Applications 510 1682 952 1020 2650 1052 250 8116
submitted
Applications 427 1672 846 1020 2574 711 197 7447
Examined
Applications 83 10 106 0 76 341 53 669
pending

14
Table 5 Total number of applications submitted and examined from Commissioni
Territoriali
Total number Percentage
Total applications examined 7447 91,7%
Total applications pending 669 8,3%
Total applications submitted 8116 100%

The efficiency of the new procedure, concerning the possibility of giving a response in a
short time and of examining all the applications, seems to be confirmed by these data.
Comparing these data with the ones of Commissione Centrale the differences are evident,
as the percentage of hanging applications has been reduced of is more than half after the
reform. However What is important to remember that the integration process of the
asylum seekers it is not depleted with the practice of t he recognition of the status. Once
outside of the Cdi, the persons run the risk of finding themselves completely lost in the
new society. Ics reports of persons left from the centers, with humanitarian permission,
but completely unaware of their rights, of any information on where to go or to whom
they should ask for aid.
Together with the shortening times of waiting, the reform also has had a strong impact
on the kind of responses given by the Commissioni Territoriali.

Table 6 Responses given by Commissioni Territoriali from 21-04-2005 to 27-02-2006

Roma Crotone Trapani Siracusa Foggia Milano Gorizia Totale
Positive 31 32 59 40 56 66 74 358
Negative 238 1184 124 468 1187 282 55 3538
Humanitarian 133 456 663 497 1164 90 46 3049
Re-examination 0 10 127 0 129 0 0 266
Untraceable 25 0 0 15 150 208 0 398
Suspended 0 0 0 0 0 65 0 65
Other 17 * 22 ** 39
*competence of other states **dismissed

15
Table 7 Responses given by Commissione Centrale and Commissioni Territoriali
Commissione Centrale Commissioni Territoriali
2002 to 21.04.2005 21-04-2005 to 27-02-2006
Percentage Percentage
Negative 28,4% 45,8%
Humanitarian 14,2% 39,6%
Untraceable 48,8% 5,2%
Positive 7,7% 4,7%
Re-examination (only for 3,4%
Commissioni Territoriali)
Others* 0,9% 1,3%
Total examined 100% 100%
* (Transferred, cessations, renunciations, not considered, suspended)

Table 7 shows some important points of difference between old and new procedures.
First of all a decrease in untraceable asylum seekers. Contextually to that however there
is also an important change on the type of responses given: a) there is a larger increase of
negative answers, b) a lesser decrease of those positive (persons recognized as refugees
according the Geneva Convention), c) an increase of more than the double of
humanitarians (persons to whom is granted a temporary protection).

2.5 The Special Commission “Stralcio”

With the reform of the system on 21th April 2005 a “Commissione Speciale Stralcio" has
also been created, in order to respond to the thousands of hanging applications to the
Central Commission under the “old” procedure. Unfortunately, as it comes out from
many interviews made and from statistical data, such commission is in serious delay with
the job, with a result that till nowadays – nearly a year from the reform of the procedure –
thousands of persons are still waiting for the interview under the "old procedure".

16
Table 8 Applications examined and still pending by Commissione Speciale Stralcio
22.04.2005 to 31.12.2005 Number Percentage
Applications examined 3732 26,3%
Applications still pending 14143 100%

As it is evident from Table 8 the applications examined from the Commissione Stralcio at
the end of 2005 represent only approximately 1/4 of the total of the applications that are
still pending according to the data supplied from the National Commission on Asylum.
This delay in carrying out the auditions of the pending applications of the previous years,
represents a serious handicap for the new system established with the reform of the
territorial commissions. Without "discharging" the beyond 10.000 20 applications still
pending in front of the Commissione Stralcio in fact the introduction of the territorial
commission in order to decentralize the analysis of the applications and guarantee a
greater efficiency and rapidity in the analysis of them, remains in a certain way
"maimed". Indeed, from many parts it is denounced the extreme slowness of the
Commissione Stralcio in the discharge of the pending applications. The government,
therefore, in order to cope with such a situation has decided with a decree of the Prime
Minister dated 23 March 2006, to allow the territorial commission to consider also the
pending applications in front of the Commissione Stralcio, in order to discharge them
more quickly.

2.6 The nationalities mainly represented and the movement of the income flows
If we analyze the different nationalities mainly represented between those who have
made asylum applications, we can notice some important points. There are not some
specific nationalities more represented than the others, but on the contrary there are many
different ones with a continuous movement in the course of the years. This is a specific
character of the Italian immigration, that is not influenced from colonial linkages, as it is
the case, for example, of France and England, but is instead characterized by a great
heterogeneity regarding the countries of origin. Besides that the analysis of table 9

20
The applications submitted before 2002 are not considered.

17
clarifies, at least in part, that the income flows reflect the several international crises that
are have occurred in the last decades (Albania, Former Yugoslavia, Iraq etc).

Table 9 First 5 nationalities within applications of asylum submitted from 1990 to 2004
1990-2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Serbia-
Albania 21.300 Iraq 1.985 Iraq 1.944 Somalia 1.743
Montenegro 1.989
RF Yugoslavia
Turkey 1.690 Liberia 1.660 Liberia 1.550 Romania 1.161
12.197
RF Yugoslavia Serbia-
Iraq 12.132 Sri Lanka 1.526 Nigeria 930
1.526 Montenegro 1.510
RF Yugoslavia
Romania 6.114 Sri Lanka 555 Eritrea 1.230 Eritrea 831
1.418
Sudan 486
Turkey 4.250 Romania 501 Pakistan 1.256 Pakistan 787

Source: Dossier Caritas 2005. Data of Commissione Centrale.

With the changing of the origin of the income flows the pressure on the different border
has also changed. We have, therefore, assisted to a progressive movement towards the
South Western coasts of the peninsula with inflows of asylum seekers. During the first
half of the 90’s, we can generally observe that on the Italian-Slovene’s borders and also
on the Adriatic coasts the pressure asylum seekers has been stronger. As far as the
geography of the entrance is concerned we have noticed a high flow of persons from the
Balkan area: the evacuated ones from the former Yugoslavia, the Albanians and the
Kossovarians. From the second half of the 90’s the channels of entrance were gradually
moved, in a first moment to the coasts of Calabria, mainly coming from Kurdistan,
Turkey, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East, then to the coasts of Sicily, from
sub-Saharan Africa but also from Middle Eastern countries after a period of transit in
countries such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The data supplied from the territorial
commission seem to confirm such change, even if we must remark that the place of
presentation of the application, and the consequent examination of it, not necessarily
corresponds to the place of arrival of the asylum seekers.

18
3. The Welcome of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy

3.1 From Azione Comune to Programma Nazionale Asilo, towards a welcoming

system
The welcome of asylum seekers and refugees together with the reform of the procedure is
the other aspect that the new legislation has reformed. The state should in theory be
responsible for the welcome of the asylum seekers. In Italy however the idea of a direct
responsibility of the state for the welcome of the asylum seekers has delayed a lot in
taking a firm stance and still, as we will see, such responsibility remains highly
disregarded. During the 90’s the welcoming was relegated to single projects of different
ngo’s and the only participation of the state was a financial contribution called first
welcoming contribution. Only at the end of the 90’s the first "integrated" welcoming
plan was developed. A national system of welcoming for asylum seekers and refugees
was started for the first time with the project "Azione Comune". The project "Azione
Comune", managed from the Cir with the participation of several local agencies, has
involved approximately one thousand asylum seekers, mainly Kossovarians, and for the
first time has assumed an organic system of welcoming with the involvement of the local
authorities. Its principal goal was that of giving not only first aid, but of supplying also
useful instruments for the asylum seekers in view of their social integration 21 . A project
therefore of "high profile", that has represented a fundamental turn in the management of
the policies of welcoming, overcoming the emergency’s approach and ad hoc.
In fact starting from the results and the experience of that project a national strategy for
the welcoming of asylum seekers and refugees has been set up, with the institution of the
National Plan for Asylum (PNA) and afterwards with the institution of Servizio Centrale
for asylum seekers and refugees (article 32 of the "Bossi-Fini" law).
The PNA was founded in 2001 on the base of an agreement between the Ministry of the
Interior, the Unhcr and the Anci. The PNA endorses the points of force shown from
Azione Comune and in fact proposes a decentralized welcoming system, in which the

21
The law 40/98 gives to the municipalities an important role in the welcoming and integration of the
immigrants.

19
local authority is the main actor in the planning of the welcoming. Within this
framework, the Anci has the coordination of the Plan and, through a ban, more than 50
municipalities join the plan in several regions of Italy. Azione Comune, as a pilot plan,
and the PNA, represent therefore the foundations on which the actual system is based.
The positive aspects shown from this experience are mainly two: firstly the promotion of
a decentralized system of welcoming with the involvement of the local authorities;
secondly the fact of having “promoted also the consolidation of a modus operandi deeply
different from the past, not based any longer exclusively on the solidarity but oriented
towards the realization of an integrated system of protection in which the welcoming is
only a first step in the process of integration. The Plan in fact aims at stimulating
authentically cross-sectional services, in order to accompany the person from the phase of
presentation of the application to the eventual stabilization and integration, or to the
voluntary return in the country of origin. 22 "
On the contrary the more critical point of the Plan is the scarcity and the uncertainty of
funds for financing. The funds available for the welcoming project are greatly insufficient
to guarantee a welcoming for all the asylum seekers arriving every year on the territory; it
can hardly guarantee the welcoming for a 1/6 of them. As emphasized by Anci, the
expenses for integration in Italy are less than a quarter of the sum of money spent for
contrasting clandestine immigration. Together with scarcity, the other problem has been
the uncertainty of the funds; as a consequence it has been extremely difficult on the part
of the associations to manage plans of welcoming for asylum seekers.
As reported by the associations interviewed there has been a cut nearly 50% of the funds
at the beginning of 2002. Beyond this, the other critical aspect has been, but for many
asylum seekers still is, the limited time of welcoming in comparison with the times of
waiting for the Commission. In fact, the maximum period for a welcome center is 6
months, in exceptional cases extended to another 6, to foster a turn-over for the new
arrivals. Unfortunately though in front of this limit, theoretically just, the real general
waiting time was, and for many still is, of 18 months.

22
See Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale, Dal Programma Nazionale Asilo al Sistema di protezione per
richiedenti asilo e rifugiati, October 2004, pag 32.

20
3.2 The “Bossi-Fini” law and the institution of “the System of Protection for Asylum
seekers and refugees”
With the entrance in force of Law 189/2002, the welcoming system here described
receives an "institutionalization". Article 32 in fact provides for the institution of the
"System of protection for asylum seekers and refugees" (SPRAR) and inside of the
System, a guiding role, as with PNA, is assumed by the Anci. In fact, the Ministry of the
Interior has entrusted the Anci with the responsibility of the "Servizio Centrale of
information, promotion, advising, monitoring and technical support", operative structure
of SPRAR 23 . Moreover, L 189/2002 institutes a "National Fund for the policies and the
services of asylum" –which incorporates the financings of the European Fund for
Refugees– in order to contribute up to a maximum of 80% of the expenses of the local
authorities for a welcoming project. For this purpose some ngo’s have reported that as
the local authorities must pay the remaining 20% of the expenses, it can happen that,
while the municipalities with greater possibilities can better face expenses for the project,
others are forced to manage the project "to the decrease". Caritas stated that often, in the
field the local authorities anticipate the entire sum which then is often reimbursed with
much delay. However always according to Caritas, beyond the problem of the resources,
there is the problem of the political will of the local authority and of its interest in
engaging itself in this field.
The local authority is, in fact, the holder of the political and managerial responsibility of
the welcoming project, and on the local authority falls back the burden of the reception
and of the integration of asylum seekers and refugees. However, there is no obligation for
this engagement and it only depends, as said, on the political will of the local authority.
The law provides for the institution of the National Fund for the policies and the services
of asylum in order to finance the welcoming project on the territory through specific
bans. The local authorities can participate to these bans if they have a welcoming project,
but they are free not to do so if they are not interested; there is no obligation on this.

23
Anci has signed a convention with International Organization for Migration for receiving technical
support to the activity of Servizio Centrale.

21
3.3 The projects actually financed and the available resources
With the last ban of December 2005, 102 projects for a total of 2.428 places available
have been financed for the year 2006. The projects that were already part of the "system"
have been all refinanced, even if, in some cases, for a smaller number of places.
Moreover 15 new municipalities, beyond the metropolitan areas of Rome and Milan 24 ,
have entered in the system. The geographical distribution of the plans on the national
territory covers the entire peninsula. Between the projects financed 19 of them have been
financed because they were focused on the more vulnerable categories of asylum seekers,
like victims of torture, unaccompanied minors, etc.
The funds proposed for the management of the territorial projects are assigned to the
local authorities that are responsible and that must provided for the distribution to the
ngo’s project managers. The importance of such synergy, between institutions and ngo’s,
have been underlined both from Anci and from Servizio Centrale.
Anci stresses that this network involves the great national associations (Cir, Caritas, Ics),
as well as some local ones and that both the ngo’s and the local authorities have greatly
profited from this exchange. Servizio Centrale reports also that the better projects are
those with a good synergy between these two players and that the philosophy on which
the System is grounded is just that of supporting this kind of reciprocal exchange.
In the past years, starting from 2002, a part of 8 per mille has been added to the National
Fund for the policies and the services of asylum in order to finance the welcoming
projects. Unfortunately in the plan introduced from Anci for the widening and the support
of the policies of welcoming for the categories more vulnerable such as refugees and
asylum seekers is not included in the Dpcm of 30 January 2006, that allots 8 per mille for
2005. This will therefore have serious repercussions on the budget of the local
authorities.

24
Rome and Milan was excluded from Sistema di protezione and they entered this year with 150 places
each. It is clear that both Rome and Milan have higher number of asylum seekers but in order not to receive
all the funds available, it has been decided to limited the places financed by the Sistema di protezione, and
financing the others with others funds.

22
3.4 The instruments for integration
As we remarked before the development of PNA and then SPRAR, has promoted a new
definition of the concept of welcoming which goes beyond the idea of the bare minimum
(that relegates the welcoming to an exclusive material aid) and enables the person to start
a process of integration. Together with the welcoming the discourse has been broadened
with the problems of integration; during the last years, there has been an attempt to
strengthen the services inside the welcoming projects aiming at a real integration of the
person. The social integration that the different projects of PNA and then of SPRAR have
carried out, have involved different levels:
a) the teaching of the Italian language and the tutoring for the services of the territory, as
an tools for a better integration in the society;
b) different plans for the getting in the labour market, with stages and internships;
c) aids for finding an independent lodging in order to work out an exit plan from
assistance.
Different activities have been set up in the several projects on the territory in order to
reach these goals. An important contribution to the elaboration of an integration strategy
has been given by a previous Equal project, "Integra". Also on the base of the
experiences and recommendations of such a project, the Servizio Centrale has established
the minimum standards of the integration services provided by the centers in order to
participate to the Sistema di Protezione 25 .

25
"Operating handbook for the activation and the management of services of welcome and integration for
asylum seekers, refugees and beneficiaries of humanitarian protection" of December 2005

23
3.5 Which kind of welcoming: between integration and abandonment
The reality of the welcoming system for asylum seekers and refugees in Italy shows two
faces. On the one side there is a system that is aimed at supplying the instruments for a
real integration of the person; on the other side though there is the disconcerting problem
of the great number of all those who remain excluded from such a system and are
"abandoned to themselves". The numbers of the persons received by the PNA before and
the SPRAR then are clear. Starting from 2000, the beginning year of PNA, an average of
approximately 2000 persons per year has been accepted in the system. However, in these
same years, the average of applications submitted is around 15,000 per year. The places
granted cover a minimal percentage facing the real necessities and if the financing
remains on this level there is no possibility of changing this situation. For all those who
are excluded the only aid proposed was the financial contribution of the Martelli law,
abolished de facto with the Bossi-Fini law. Regarding this big "invisible" majority, we
must also remark that research projects and studies are lacking. While there are some
publications and researches on the system of the welcoming, the researches are
practically non existent 26 on the real situation of the thousands of persons who remain
outside from it.

26
One of the few researches about this theme is the one of Centro Astalli, Storie di diritti negati, on the
situation of Rome.

24
BIBLIOGRAPHY

ƒ A.A.V.V, Rifugiati in Italia: la protezione negata. Primo rapporto sul diritto di

asilo in Italia, ICS, Roma, 2005
ƒ A.A. V.V, Survey on Policy and Practice related to refugee integration, Oxford
Brookes Unoversity, December 2002
ƒ Amnesty International, Italia, presenza temporanea, diritti permanenti. Il
trattamento dei cittadini stranieri detenuti nei “centri di permanenza temporanea
e assistenza”, Roma, 2005
ƒ Carolina Zincone e Rosa Helena Ippolito, Torniamo all’asilo. Uno studio per il
Programma Nazionale Asilo, OIM, Roma, 2002
ƒ CIR Notizie, Mensile del consiglio Italiano per i rifugiati, anni 2005 e 2006
ƒ Tiziana Caponio, Dal Programma Nazionale Asilo al Sistema di Protezione
Richiedenti Asilo e Rifugiati (2001-2004), Cespi, Roma, 2004
ƒ International Federation for Human Rights, Right of Asylum in Italy: Access to
procedure and treatment of asylum seekers, June 2005,
http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/eu_asylum419a.pdf
ƒ Integ.r.a, Formare, inserire, integrare: strumenti e indicazioni per richiedenti
asilo e rifugiati, Roma, 2004
ƒ Marco Catarci, Resource, Il contributo dei rifugiati all’Europa. La ricerca in
italia, ICS, 2005
ƒ Quaderni del Centro Astalli, Ricerca Giuridica sugli orientamenti
giurisprudenziali in materia di asilo, Quaderni/4, Roma, Settembre 2003
ƒ Servizio centrale del Sistema di Protezione dei richiedenti asilo e rifugiati, Un
rifugio in comune. Schede di sintesi dei progetti territoriali e dati statistici sulle
presenze, Roma, 2004
ƒ Servizio centrale del Sistema di Protezione, Manuale operativo per l’attivazione e
la gestione di servizi di accoglienza e integrazione per richiedenti asilo, rifugiati
e beneficiari di protezione umanitaria, Roma, 2005

25
LIST OF THE MAIN WEB SITES EXAMINED

http://www.serviziocentrale.it/ita/presentazione.asp
http://www.programmanazionaleasilo.it/
www.unhcr.it
http://www.ecre.org/
http://www.icsitalia.org/
http://www.cir-onlus.org/
http://www.integra-anci.it/ita/index.html
http://www.anci.it/sezionihp.cfm?sezione1=Immigrazione%20e%20Diritto%20Asilo
http://www.cestim.it/28rifugiati.htm

26