27 November 2018

Italian Parliament approves Salvini’s anti-immigration decree by large majority

On 28 November, and after Italian Senate already approved it on 7 November, Italian Parliament backed Salvini’s strong anti-immigration decree (with 396 votes in favour and 99 against), converted into one of the main points in his policies and discourse. Lega MPs celebrated this on Thursday with a banner that read: “The Salvini decree is law; the good times (for migrants) are over”. Nevertheless, the voting discomforted a number of MPs from the Movimento 5 Stelle, in government coalition with la Lega Nord, as 11 of them did not participate in the voting. On the other side, MPs for the Democratic Party protested against what they consider to be a law that will create “thousands of new clandestine”, as the asylum seeking process will become much more restrictive. Asylum concessions will be limited to war refugees or politically persecuted persons, thereby eliminating the concept of “humanitarian” asylum, which protected a large proportion of migrants. Special permits of shorter duration, which will be granted for cases like natural catastrophe, domestic violence, or religious matters, will replace many asylum concessions. The law also facilitates expulsion or withdrawal of nationality in the event of law breaking, and extends the time limit for stays in expulsion centres from 90 to 210 days. UNHCR reported that the new law will put around 100.000 migrants in a clandestine situation by 2020. This comes just after Italy’s announcement to not sign UN’s Treaty on Migration, following the US, Austria, and Hungary’s path.

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