Non-EU workers demand: Italy receives 238,335 applications in one hour

Rome: The demand to bring migrant workers to Italy under the country’s quota system has surpassed the number of eligible places just one hour after online applications got underway.

According to the Info Migrants report, Italy saw three times as many requests as stipulated in the decree on migrant flows for this year, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The same revealed that within an hour of making the online tool eligible, a total of 238,335 applications were received, while the official quota provides for just 82,705 placements. In addition, the tool was entirely overbooked on day one.

In addition, more than 240,000 applications were uploaded onto the platform by the evening.

Labor Minister Elvira Calderone stressed that the government certainly cares about this issue while noting that the Ministry is looking at broader planning in order to understand whether it has to intervene again.

At the same time, the Coldiretti Farmers’ association urged for another decree in order to permit new entry quotas, stressing that at least 100,000 workers were still missing to fill the labour shortage noted in the field of agriculture.

“In the countryside, with the arrival of spring, there is a need for over 100,000 workers to fill the labour shortage that hit the countryside hard last year with the significant loss of crops,” said Coldiretti President Ettore Prandini.

Territories suffering from labour shortages include Trentino and Vento as well as Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio and Campania.

“We have to look at a more complex issue, the intersection between demand as well as offer for employment, which is obviously not only connected to the theme of migration and how to manage the employment of immigrants but more in general to the integration of all those who are outside the (labour) market today,” Minister Calderone pointed out.

Authorities in Italy are struggling with an influx of migrants who attempt to reach this country illegally. In addition, nearly 5,600 migrants entered Italy’s southern coast this weekend alone, based on a report provided by InfoMigrant.

Besides, the Italian News Agency, ANSA, revealed that over 3,000 migrants entered the Italian island of Lampedusa for a period within two days.

The same source noted that about 27,000 boat migrants were detected by authorities in Italy since the beginning of this year, which is a fourfold increase compared to the figures recorded in the same period last year, in which period 6,543 migrants reached Italy illegally.

In order to manage the current situation, authorities in Italy as well as those in Slovenia and Croatia reached a trilateral agreement to tighten border controls and prevent illegal migration.