Protection for asylum-seekers and refugees

International legislation: the convention about the determination of the competent state for the exame of the demand of political asylum in UE (regulation number 2003/343) is commonly called 'the Dublin Regulation' and it is a multilateral international treaty about the right of asylum. It was signed in 1990 but it's operating since 1997. The main aims of this treaty are to prevent that the asylum-seekers request the status of refugee in more than one country (this is called asylum shopping) and to delineate the amount people that is transported between different countries. The convention of Ginevra is one of the main points of the Dublin treaty. It establishes the standards that allow an asylum-seeker to become a refugee. In addition, it contains the parameters to decide the end of this status, which are:

  • - The refugee returned to his country;
  • - The refugee become a citizen of another State;
  • - The refugee's country stopped the persecution.
Article 32 talks about the prohibition of banishment of the refugee.

Demand of protection: The decisions about protection are made by National asylum stystems, like the British N.A.S.S. (National Asylum Support Service) and the Italian "commissioni territoriali", that have the power to decide which canditates are qualified as needy of help, care and protection. In every case the alien must:

  • - Fill in a form with all the motivation for the request;
  • - Have the copy of the passport;
  • - Present every document that could testify the need of protection.
If the asylum-seeker is jugded not to be needy of international protection, he can be sent back to his home country.

Foreigner's condition in the EU and in national legislation

In relation to Italian legislation, in addition to European agreements, Bossi-Fini law is binding. This law establishes:

  • - The migrant has to have a regular "Permesso di soggiorno" which is a document that testifies that the migrant is allowed to stay in Italy for a certain perdiod of time it can be issued if the migrant demonstrates that he has a regular work: the entry and the permanency of migrants are subjected to the working activity done (with a two year "permesso di soggiorno" for those who have a permanent contract and a one year "permesso di soggiorno" for those who have a temporary contract);
  • - The immediate banishment for those who aren't regular migrant (without IDcard and "permesso di soggiorno"). They are brought in temporary permanence centers in order to be identified and than rejected;
  • - The duration of the "permesso di soggiorno" of unemployed migrant has been reduced from twelve months to six months.

Job

If a migrant want to find a job, he can apply for it at the employment centers that are organizations or private companies that work to make the access to work information easier and practical. Lots of employment centers have users support dedicated to migrants with the aim to find them a job and to complete the documents needed. Italian law establishes the principle of reciprocity which means that migrants can start a private business only if Italians can do that in their State.

The status of illegal migrant

Law 94 (of 2nd July 2009) is the one that testifies the crime of illegal migration. In our system is considerated a penal crime, that can be punished only with monetary penalty or the expulsion. This law has been criticized because it's against the "equality" that our Costitution declare at the base of our system. Recently the Minniti's decree introduced two main news in the previous legislation:

  • - The improvement in quantity of CPR "Centri Per il Rimpatrio";
  • - The abolishment of the 2nd grade judgement for those who have made a compliant about the refusal of their demand.