AYS Daily Digest 03/01/2019: Italian mayors are defying Salvini
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Digest, Solidarity, Italy, Refugees, Sea

New report released by No Name Kitchen on illegal pushbacks and violence in the Balkans // Pushbacks happening between Morocco and Spain // Missing and deaths in Libya // New classes available in Lesvos and Athens // A tragic death in Corfu // Donations needed for people in Calais and Dunkirk // And more news from Turkey, Morocco, Serbia, Italy, France, and the UK…

Credit: Sea Watch

FEATURE

Entered into force at the end of November 2018, Law n. 132/2018, the so-called Security Decree or Salvini Decree, has already forced hundreds of migrants outside of second level reception centres, giving them no option but to sleep rough or rely on Caritas, Red Cross, and other volunter-based NGOs, if not on the individual solidarity of locals.

The first example of such brutal application of the law regards 24 people, with regular humanitarian protection, who were expelled from the CARA of Isola di Caporizzuto (Crotone) a few days after the official publication of the law. Among them was a five months old baby. In the same structure alone, 90 more people were threatened with the same treatment, as were hundreds of migrants with regular permit across the country.

So what does the actual Decree really mean for people’s lives? In what ways does it change things?

As reported by ASGI, the main points of this new Decree are:

the elimination of humanitarian protection;

the maximum amount of time people could spend in administrative detention, before being deported back, has raised from 90 to 180 days; also the time migrants could spend in hotspots has raised to 30 days;

the elimination of the second level reception network (SPRAR system); the only level of reception that was rooted in the territory and that could guarantee a decent amount of services to the people hosted;

for those who got their asylum application denied and are facing a trial for penal crimes, even if they have a pending appeal, there is the obligation to leave the territory;

if a migrant does not apply immediately for asylum, once in the territory, his/her request could be discarded for “groundless reasons;”

Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Justice are the ones responsible to create a list of “safe third countries” of which their citizens can receive asylum in Italy, just in case of severe circumstances.

In particular, the elimination of the SPRAR network and humanitarian protection are the most worrying points of the whole Decree — the ones that are affecting an average, potentially of 30,000 people residing in second level reception centres throughout the territory and holders of humanitarian protection.

Read the full report on the SPRAR system and the services available here (just in Italian).

But, hope and solidarity have been shining across the country as mayors in different areas are defying the new law. First among them is Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo (Sicily), the first one to speak up against the inhumanity of the Decree. In particular, the mayor has suspended the application of the law in the territories under his administration, as they clearly attack human rights and principles enshrined in the Italian Constitution. Orlando has blocked, in particular, new procedures regarding changes in the “iscrizione anagrafica” — residency and data registration — of the migrants targeted by the law.

Mayors of Napoli, Luigi De Magistris, and Reggio Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomatà, together with the one of Parma, Federico Pizzarotti, and Firenze, Dario Nardella, have clearly expressed their position against the Decree and especially against the closure of the SPRAR system. Others around the country — in Cerveteri, Bari, and Pescara — have raised their voices against the “values” of the new law.

Another mayor, Domenico Lucano — now former mayor of Riace, as he was expelled from his own territory — faced consequences for his solidarity with migrants; therefore, we hope that this unanimous voice, this resistance, will stay strong and united against fascist and discriminatory regulations.