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21/3/2017
UNHCR staff receive survivors at the dock of the Sicilian port of Messina, Sicily
© UNHCR/Marco Rotunno/UNHCR/Marco Rotunno

Council of Europe: report published on situation of asylum-seekers and migrants reception and child-protection system in Italy

On the 8th March 2017, a report was published by the Council of Europe Secretary General’s Special Representative on migration and refugees, Ambassador Tomáš Boček, after his fact-finding mission to Italy from 16th to 21st October 2016, where he visited both formal and informal facilities for migrants and refugees in Sicily, Lampedusa, Rome and Como. The report recommends that Italy improve its asylum reception-capacity and integration policies, prevent human trafficking and combat corruption in the migration-related services sector.

The Special Representative also stressed the need to strengthen the protection of refugee and migrant children; called upon the Italian authorities and the EU to expedite the examination of asylum claims and of relocation and family-reunification requests; and pointed to the risk that weaknesses in the system for voluntary and forced removals might be encouraging the arrival of more irregular economic migrants.

2016 saw a record number of refugees and other migrants taking the central Mediterranean route. Efforts have been made to increase and improve the accommodation and services offered, but the high number of those arriving in Italy - over 180,000 in 2016, of whom around 25,000 were unaccompanied children - has meant that supply has not kept up with demand. According to the report, more solidarity from other member States of the Council of Europe is needed to ensure a fairer distribution of asylum-seekers across the continent and alleviate the burden currently shouldered by Italy. The country should also be assisted in its cross-border efforts to fight people smuggling. The purpose of the recommendations in the report is to ease the situation of refugees and other migrants and to propose concrete action on how the Council of Europe can give assistance to Italy. The report gives a solid base to build opportunities for co-operation in the coming months to tackle together the issues identified therein.

The full version of the report and the interview with Tomáš Boček are available in the links below.