Italy demands 5,000 euros from rejected migrants to avoid detention

Migrants rejected from the right to asylum in Italy will have to pay a deposit of 5,000 euros under penalty of being sent to a detention center while their appeal is examined, provides for a decree published in the official journal, prompting Friday the condemnation of the left-wing opposition.

This financial guarantee of precisely 4,938 euros, described as “ransom» by the left-wing daily La Repubblicais supposed to cover accommodation and living costs for a person for one month, as well as the cost of their repatriation in the event their application is definitively rejected.

It will be required from people who have tried to evade border controls as well as from those coming from a so-called “country”.on» and who, in principle, cannot therefore claim asylum. If the applicant “disappears unduly», the deposit which he paid will be taken, specifies the text.

A measure criticized by the left

The measure was harshly criticized by the left. “On immigration, the government had already lost face, it is now losing its dignity by filling the coffers [de l’État] on the backs and despair of people», Regretted the Democratic deputy Emiliano Fossi. “Institutional human trafficking», blasted Riccardo Magi, national secretary of the centrist +Europa party.

This decree appears just a few days after the announcement by the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni of its intention to increase the maximum period of detention for rejected applicants to 18 months, compared to 40 renewable days currently (138 days maximum).

15,000 arrivals in Italy since September 11

The executive thus intends to dissuade departures from North Africa and prevent the Italian authorities from being legally obliged to release foreigners subject to a decision to deport them to the border in the event that the expulsion procedure has not been successful in the allotted time limit.

Since September 11, Italy has recorded more than 15,000 arrivals of migrants from the North African coast to its shores, most of them landing on the island of Lampedusa, whose reception facilities have been overwhelmed. Since the start of the year, their number is almost 130,000, compared to 68,200 in 2022 over the same period, according to the Ministry of the Interior.