Italy’s northern regions call asylum-seeker doctors to fight against COVID-19, counteracting the recent Salvini Security Decrees.

The shortage of hospital staff to meet the increasing demand for health-care in Italy during the COVID-19 emergency forces Northern regions’ governors to ignore current Italian immigration laws.

MILAN– The Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, was about to modify certain articles of the 2018 Salvini Security Decrees when COVID-19 broke out in Italy. Lamorgese intended to reduce the wait for asylum-seekers to become citizens, increase Italy’s funds to secondary reception centers, and rehabilitate the humanitarian permit for victims of persecution and human trafficking.

The health-care system crisis due to COVID-19 is fastening this process in the Italian sanitary system as doctor positions are opened to both Italians and non-Italians.

Not only retired and residents but also asylum-seekers can answer Northern Regions’ bids for doctors, reversing the Italian Immigration law, especially the two Salvini Security Decrees.

On March 17, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the regional governors signed an agreement to temporarily hire new medical staff to fight against the COVID-19 emergency.

The decree Cure Italy grants hospitals one billion euros to employ medical personnel without discrimination based on nationality.

The World Health Organization reported more than 147,577 infection cases in Italy, with more than 18,849 deaths and 30,455 recovered. More than 2,000 Italian nurses and doctors were infected as well. The doctors’ trade union claimed 66 doctors have died.

On March 20, Lombardy and Piacenza Province published a call for bids on its websites. They asked for 300 volunteer doctors among the entire country regardless of their resident status. Within 12 hours, the applications were 1,500. Two days later, they exceeded 3,500.

“It shows great solidarity and the will to give a service to our community,” said Giuseppe Conte on social media.

The Italian Immigration law usually forbids asylum-seekers to access the health-care system’s calls for bids until their Italian citizenship is granted, according to Foad Aodi, President of the Foreign Doctors Association (AMSI). It is the first time submissions for health-care employees are open to asylum-seekers as well.

Salvini Security Decrees

Former Italian Minister of the Interior and leader of the Lega party, Senator Matteo Salvini, proposed two immigration decrees when he was still in office. The Salvini Security Decrees (also called Salvini Bills) were signed by the Italian government in 2018, forcing asylum-seekers to wait four years for an answer about their status. In the meantime, they have no certainty about being accepted as Italian citizens.

In June 2019, the Foreign Doctors Association had proposed asylum-seekers to obtain citizenship if they passed the habilitation exam. The association reported Italian hospitals did not have enough medical staff, while the number of asylum-seeker doctors exceeded 19,000 units.

Earlier that year, on Feb. 9, the Italian Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese had announced on national television she was about to reduce the 4-year wait to two years— as it was set before the Security Decrees.

Still, the modification shifted due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and Northern Regions’ governors started hiring foreign health-care system employees to respond to the health-care crisis.

Migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers

The Geneva Convention of 1951, a document signed by 26 states, including Italy, distinguishes between a refugee and a migrant. A refugee is a displaced person who is unwilling or cannot go back to his/her/their country of origin due to persecutions and torture.

The Convention calls displaced people “forced migrants,” claiming they should become asylum-seekers until the hosting country grants them refugee status. Thus, refugees are former asylum-seekers.

According to the Convention, a displaced person has the right not to be expelled or punished for illegal entry in a country that respects human rights.

According to Father Alessandro Manaresi of the Jesuit Refugee Center, a reception center in Rome, there is little distinction between migrants and asylum-seekers. “In a way or another, they are all forced migrants,” he said in an interview for this story.

An Amnesty International’s report about the Italian Immigration system published on Jan. 20, compares some articles of the Security Decrees with the

Geneva Convention, claiming the Italian decrees restrict access to asylum by giving the possibility of repatriating asylum-seekers and refugees to their motherlands.

According to Amnesty International, if the government does not advocate for a modification, the number of illegal migrants will increase by 80,000 units by the end of 2020. Expelling all asylum-seekers would take 90 years.

“If the Security Decrees don’t change, we will have 670,000 undocumented migrants by the end of 2020,” said lawyer Marco Omizzolo during the presentation of Amnesty International’s report on the consequences of Salvini’s decrees.

Amnesty International reports the undeclared employment market absorbs and exploits migrants and asylum-seekers as underpaid laborers, even if they can obtain a six-month to one-year special protection when they are victims of exploitation or reported labor exploitation.

The global NGO advocating against human trafficking and exploitation, OpenMigration, claims migrants are 10.5 percent of the whole Italian working population. About 34.7 percent of them are over-skilled for the jobs they perform as cleaners, peasants, and domestic assistants.

“Salvini Bills [Security Decrees] worsen the reception system in Italy, generating urban polarization and poverty,” said Omizzolo. “This situation […] is causing an increase in the rate of victims of labor and criminal exploitation.”

Maria Mazzini, a member of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), spoke about human trafficking and labor exploitation on Feb. 4, during a conference about Human Trafficking and Faith-Based Organizations at John Cabot University.

“If reception and integration and inclusion processes are ensured in a continuous complementary fashion, […] the risk of criminal exploitation can be significantly reduced.” Mazzini said migrants without a permit are vulnerable and “easily exploitable” by criminal organizations.

The reception system before and after Salvini Security Decrees

Lamorgese said she also intended to rehabilitate the humanitarian permit and increase public financing to reception organizations.

Before the Security Decrees, migrants would be taken to first aid centers (CPSA), where they would have received the necessary sanitary screenings. They would be then moved to other centers (CDA and CARA) to be identified and to ask for international protection.

Those who did not send the request would be transferred to other centers (CIE) and expelled within 90 days. After the Security Decrees signed in 2018, first aid centers diminished from 15 to 12.

Migrants who applied for the status of refugees would become asylum-seekers and be relocated to secondary reception systems (SPRAR) managed by public and private stakeholders and NGOs. These institutions would receive a three-year financial aid from the government to foster asylum-seekers’ integration through Italian language courses and work-oriented education. The SPRAR system also provided homes where volunteers and professionals could assist them continuously.

Italian local authorities and NGOs run such structures. Before the cutdown of Italy’s funds, SPRAR structures gave work to 13,58 people, 60 percent of them being women, according to Open Migration.

The SPRAR system, now called SIPROIMI (Protection system for holders of international protection and alone underage foreigners), welcomes unaccompanied children and migrants whose application for asylum has already been approved.

Before the Salvini Bills, the reception system could welcome both asylum-seekers and migrants with special protection. Today, only the latter can benefit from secondary infrastructures. The others “remain stuck in first aid centers.”

The Italian Security Decrees state migrants must be taken to “hotspots” first, which can host up to 1,100 people. If migrants ask for international protection, they are moved to the first reception centers within 48 hours. If they do not, they are sent to another structure, where they wait for 180 days to be expelled.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed concerns about the disempowerment of the SPRAR system of integration since 2018. With a decrease in the public funds for each migrant hosted, Italy’s contribution for each asylum-seeker dropped from €35 per day to a range between €19 and €21. Lamorgese plans to increase the fund by €2 or €3 per migrant.

LaRepubblica reports sources near Lamorgese said they would redistribute migrants in dismissed buildings all over the Italian territory to prevent new COVID-19 focuses.

On March 21, trade unions addressed a letter to Lamorgese asking for an amnesty for migrants in overcrowded reception centers and victims of labor exploitation.

“Along with their regularization, we ask for a stronger commitment against the illegal recruitment of forced migrants and the black market in the agricultural sector,” said Fabio Ciconte, president of Terra! Association.

“The amnesty for illegal migrants is necessary to guarantee equal medical treatment,” said Ciconte. Urban ghettos are “a potential health bomb.”

The corruption in reception centers

Baryali Waiz, an Afghan refugee studying at John Cabot University in Rome, said he is skeptical about the changes Lamorgese intends to bring.

“Migrants have to make themselves independent; otherwise, Italians will point their fingers,” said Waiz. The SPRAR system should support women with children, according to Waiz, but many teenagers and young adults are put in suburban reception centers without the possibility of finding a job. Moreover, “there are no professionals who can help them,” said Waiz.

Waiz arrived in Italy from Kabul when he was 19 years old. Now, he is 27. Since he knows many languages, he was employed as a cultural mediator in Castelnuovo di Porto, a CARA structure. “There were two thousand people [there], but Salvini closed it,” he said.

Waiz explained that if “hosted people” came five minutes late, they would receive nothing to eat for the day. “A dog cannot eat the food they give them.”

Waiz said the operators that brought him to speak with the asylum-seekers had tattooed swastikas on their arms. According to Waiz, Italy should directly manage the immigration system, instead of subcontracting. He also worked with Salvatore Buzzi, currently in jail for Mafia corruption.

Waiz said criminal organizations have now infiltrated the system as “migrants became more profitable than drug dealing.”

Before COVID-19 made it impossible, Senator Salvini said his party was ready to organize street protests against Lamorgese’s modifications. “NGOs are above the law. […] The government is dominated by them,” said the leader of Lega.

According to Amnesty International, since 2018, all types of reception structures have been disempowered, not only from an economic point of view, Integration services have been defunded, and the minimum number required of cultural mediators, psychologists, and doctors’ weekly hours diminished.

Many victims of human trafficking and asylum-seekers arrive at the Jesuit Refugee Service daily. “They are so traumatized, they cannot think about the future,” Father Manaresi said.

“If they are forced migrants, we are forced hosters,” he continued, “They have to leave their countries and families because they are persecuted, and we have to welcome them.” Manaresi said migrants do not want to invade Italy. “They do not even know where they are.”

As Lamorgese’s modifications shifted, the SPRAR system had limited funds to fight against the COVID-19 crisis. The SPRAR now SIPROIMI website states they are distributing multi-lingual flyers to prevent refugees from getting infected, as well as organizing online awareness campaigns for migrants.

Humanitarian permit and exploitation

On Feb. 9, Pope Francis also spoke about the necessity of fighting against human trafficking, which he defined as “a human plague.” He called institutions, associations, and educational agencies “to heal this scourge – because it is truly a scourge – which exploits the weakest.”

The EU’s Convention on Action Against Human Trafficking in Human (GRETA) also stated the Security Decrees should be modified as they abolish the possibility for immigrants to ask for humanitarian protection status, putting them at risk of being trafficked.

Moreover, according to a United Nations panel of experts, limiting migrants’ ability to regularize their state “will increase their vulnerability to attacks and exploitation.” Experts said this situation would benefit traffickers and criminal groups.

Lamorgese said she intends to rehabilitate the humanitarian permit for refugees since the Security Decrees exclude the possibility for migrants to ask for such permission.

The current Italian Immigration law states migrants can ask only for a “special protection permit” in case they are persecuted and tortured in their motherlands. It can be revoked if the situation in their countries of origin changes, and it excludes the possibility of becoming political refugees.

Amnesty International reported the Salvini Bills lowered the number of people eligible for asylum, rather than the number of asylum-seekers as Lega members claim. Only a few categories of migrants can obtain this kind of permit, such as severely ill people and victims of persecution, and its recipients are forced to leave first reception centers without accessing secondary ones.

Human trafficking is related to migration flows, according to Pietro Sebastiani, Italian ambassador to the Holy See. “The fight against Human Trafficking is indeed a priority of Italy’s foreign and multilateral policy,” said Sebastiani during a conference at John Cabot University on Feb. 4. “Human rights are rapidly retreating.”

Sebastiani said that it is fundamental to strengthen collaboration, “especially with countries of origin and transit of migrants,” to prevent this practice. According to the Ambassador, “we need to correct our model of growth” as it is focused on economic profit and incapable of assuring decorous jobs and working conditions.

“We have created a global market, but not a global community sharing the objective of a peaceful and wealthy world,” said Mazzini during the same conference.

UNHCR claims that not all victims of trafficking are refugees, but some victims of trafficking might qualify for refugee status. UNHCR published a report to recognize human trafficking victims among refugees, providing seminars to local authorities responsible for the reception system.

According to the report published in January 2019 by GRETA, the known victims of human trafficking in Italy were only 1,772 in 2016 for the lack of a uniform identification system. Since no official statistics are provided, the report encouraged the Italian State to create a shared database of the trafficked victims.

“Only a small proportion of trafficked people have been identified,” said Mazzini referencing the United Nations’ research, which stated that 72 percent of victims are women and girls, and the percentage of child victims has more than doubled from 2004 to 2016.

The majority of victims are female migrants coming, mostly from Nigeria. They are sexually exploited, according to Mazzini.

Information campaigns

GRETA suggests improving awareness campaigns against human trafficking in Italy and spreading them through mass media.

To this claim, Waiz said, “people don’t receive the correct information […] youngsters know little or nothing at all about human trafficking and its consequences.”

According to Father Manaresi, the financial disempowerment and the negative media coverage received after the Salvini Bills made providing aid to migrants more difficult.

“In Germany, migrants and refugees live in effective infrastructures that provide top services. Still, they become invisible,” said Manaresi. “In Italy, we have a weaker system, but people can see them walking in the streets. That’s why our foundation is beside Piazza Venezia. Every day at 3 p.m. Italians see a queue of [about] 250 people waiting for their lunch.”

According to Manaresi, Italians need to be aware of migrants’ presence, but negative media attention can heighten the discrimination.

Education

The Jesuit Refugee Center in Rome organizes awareness campaigns and meetings with Italian schools. They have planned an educational program for Italian students. “We let refugees talk with young students because education is fundamental in this situation,” said Manaresi.

“We need to start from our schools,” since educating children from a young age is significant as “no one is born racist,” said Waiz. He said the Italian government needs to prevent children from growing up in a discriminatory system of thought.

Filmmaker Lia Beltrami, director of Wells of Hope, a documentary produced by Aurora Vision for the faith-based NGO, Talitha Kum, that advocates against human trafficking in the context of women’s sexual exploitation,

“It’s easy to put a human trafficking victim in front of the camera, asking her to tell her terrible story. Yet, it does not give dignity to the person.”

Talitha Kum’s coordinator, Sister Gabriella, said Wells of Hope is a medium of prevention. Although the NGO cannot make previsions, they claimed to have helped 235,000 people so far.

Wells of Hope coordinates a collective work with a multi-faith team in the Middle East. The group aims to reach out and support the victims, said Sister Marie Claude, coordinator of the project.

“We aim to make hope coming back,” said Sister Gabriella.

Update

Protezione Civile (the Italian Civil Protection) opened another application window for 500 nurses and received more than 9,400 submissions. The number of asylum-seeker doctors and nurses who have engaged in the bids isn’t available at the moment.

What is reported to date is that asylum-seekers, similarly to Italian residents and retired medical workers, are being offered temporary jobs. However, such a job offer does not grant the possibility for Italian citizenship.

Lamorgese has not made official statements about the future status of asylum-seekers temporarily working in health-care to fight COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, logistical and operational difficulties have limited legal services and slowed down asylum application procedures.

This article appeared in The Matthew student newspaper on April 29, 2020.