Right of asylum ⁄ Open Migration

The agriculture emergency in Italy: three proposals to solve the crisis and protect everyone’s rights

April 23, 2020 - Sara Manisera and Janos Chiala

During the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, much was said about “essential workers”, meaning those people whose job cannot be halted without serious repercussions on society. This category includes farm labourers, the invisible people who, often times exploited, work in Italian farmlands to ensure an uninterrupted supply of fruit and vegetables. Sara Manisera and Janos Chiala, from the Taurianova ghetto, explain how this crisis could be solved protecting everyone’s rights.

Regularisation of migrants. One step forward, but much more could be done

May 18, 2020 - Andrea Oleandri

The impression that many gathered from the proposed measures to regularise foreign workers is that it they are targeting more “us” and our needs (fruit and vegetables that risk staying unpicked in the crops, the elderly and the sick who will need assistance when the people they live with go back to work), than “them” and their right to dignity. It is one step forward, that is for sure, but with how many missed opportunities? Andrea Oleandri analyses them.

Migrants’ detention will not stop with the pandemic

May 27, 2020 - Giacomo Zandonini

Detention of irregular migrants is still the main instrument used to track down and repatriate unwelcome people, even when - like during a pandemic - this is not allowed. Giacomo Zandonini tells us how the Coronavirus emergency in Europe is leaving migrants’ detention unchanged.

The shadows of the Portugal’s migration model

May 8, 2020 - Giacomo Zandonini

The news that Portugal has extended a series of benefits to migrants waiting for regularisation in response to the coronavirus pandemic, has travelled around the world. But even if thousands of people, amongst the most precarious and vulnerable in the country, will be better protected thanks to the new measures, in force until June 30th, “it is untrue to argue that now all irregular migrants will have access to the same rights as the citizens”. Giacomo Zandonini helps us to understand why.

I would like to stay home. The emergency in the emergency of the homeless

April 16, 2020 - Daniela Sala

In Italy, around 50 thousand people live on the streets. Among them, an ever growing percentage of migrants who, deprived of assistance and left without the now dismantled SPRAR network, found themselves homeless. From Rome’s most well-known shelters, Daniela Sala describes the emergency in the emergency of those having to cope with minimal services and bureaucratic troubles.

The Story of Anthionia, detained in a pre-removal centre and almost expelled (in spite of the rules)

February 12, 2020 - Gennaro Santoro

In accordance with Italian and international standards, as well as case law of the Court of Rome, only the Territorial Asylum Commission can determine whether a second asylum application based on new facts is admissible or not. A circular issued by the Ministry of the Interior, however, has allowed for the Police to decide upon the repatriation of vulnerable individuals prior to the deliberation of the competent Territorial Asylum Commission on the matter. For many, this entails expulsion and detention in pre-removal centres - facilities that too often have been under public fire due to systematic violations of the human rights of the individuals held there (the latest case was that of a detainee’s death in the centre of Gradisca d’Isonzo). In this article, the first in a series dedicated to alternatives to detention, lawyer Gennaro Santoro reports on some of the cases that have occured in recent months.

Situation on Greek Islands Showcases the EU’s Failure on Migration

September 24, 2019 - Marianna Karakoulaki

In August alone, 102 boats landed on the island of Lesbos and more than 2,800 people were assisted. Thousands more people were received in the Moria camp, already collapsing - it is hosting more than 10,000 people compared to the 3,000 places - which put the already critical conditions of migrants to the test even more severely. The health crisis, the new Greek plan for immigration and the harmful effects of the agreement between the EU and Turkey: Marianna Karakoulaki tells us about the situation on the island.

Right of asylum