Italy: Around 103,000 migrants hosted in reception system in 2022

Rome: The Migrantes Foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) has published its new report on migration in Italy.

It includes figures on how many people were hosted in the public reception system, the number of ‘readmissions’ at the French border as well as resettlement statistics.

A total of 171,500 Ukraine refugees have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the war — they outdo by more than 50% the around 103,160 refugees and asylum seekers from all other countries who at the end of October were being hosted by the Italian public system in SAI (Sistema di accoglienza e integrazione – Reception and Integration System), CAS (Centri di accoglienza straordinaria — Special Reception Centers) and First Reception Centers.

That’s according to the report “The Right to Asylum 2022. Building a Future with Migrants and Refugees” which was presented by the Migrantes Foundation on December 13.

In terms of migrant boat arrivals, the number of dinghies with Afghans and Syrians has reportedly increased in 2022 (until September). However, the main arrivals by boat are still, as was the case in 2021, Tunisians, Egyptians and Bangladeshi.

This year’s Migrantes report for the first time opens a window on the land border situation with Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France, where figures on irregular migration are on the rise:

More than 4,800 people were intercepted by the border police of the Italian cities of Trieste and Gorizia in 2022 until mid-September — up by 12% compared to the same period in 2021.

The report also exposes figures on migrants who have been ‘readmitted’ over the border, on ‘readmissions’ to Italy and on border rejections by France, which total to 27,301 cases registered in 2022.

There have already been 33 ‘readmissions’ toward Slovenia which took place this year, against 18 that took place in the same period last year, highlights the report.

Over 100,000 asylum seekers, refugees and migrants on Italian territory

At the end of October 2022, 103,161 people were being hosted in Italian shelter facilities, comprised of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. By the end of 2021, after years when the figures showed a decreasing trend, the lowest ever reached was in 2017, with 78,421 in the shelters.

The number of people hosted in CAS (Centri di accoglienza straordinaria – Special Reception Centers) has fluctuated over the years. In 2022 it was hosting 4,556 people whereas in 2017 it reached the record number of 9,132.

Over the course of 2021 the network of local facilities SAI reached its historic peak of people hosted by its facilities, 42,464. However, by the end of the year, the people welcomed by these projects were under 26,000, only about one third of the total of those being sheltered, according to the report.

Furthermore, 2,514 migrants were resettled to Italy with the Italian national resettlement program launched in 2015, the report states.

After a peak of 985 arrivals in 2017, the annual trend has dropped to a few units in the pandemic years of 2020-2021. In 2022, only four persons were resettled in the course of the first eight months of the year.

Finally, “the humanitarian corridors promoted by the social private sectors of Catholic churches in cooperation with governments have allowed Europe to welcome since 2016 at the beginning of September, 5,074 refugees, of which 4,350 in Italy alone.”