Italy: Lower House approves migrant decree, crackdown on minors

Rome: Italy’s Lower House has approved a new migration decree that would significantly change the rules concerning hosting policies for foreign minors and the right to legal representation of foreigners.

Italy’s Senate has started examining a new migration decree following its passage in the Lower House on November 28.

The decree — also called ‘Cutro 2’, after the original Cutro decree passed earlier this year — would significantly alter the hosting of unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy, among other changes.

One of the most controversial parts of the decree, which was introduced by the Constitutional Affairs committee with an amendment presented by the League party, concerns the detention of unaccompanied minors aged 16 or older for up to five months in adult holding centers.

Additionally, the decree extends the amount of time unaccompanied minors under 16 can be detained in holding centers from 30 days to a maximum of 45 days.

In the event of intense migration flows, the capacity limit of holding centers for minors can be exceeded by 50%. Capacity limits in adult centers can be exceeded by 100%.

If minors don’t have documents, the decree allows for the facilitation of practices such as the measurement of bones or other “health inspections” to determine their age.

In case of an emergency, the authorization of the facilitation of these exams can be verbal rather than written, and the margin of error allowed in the determination of age can be up to two years.

The decree also provides for the realization of new extraordinary hosting centers (CAS) for minors with a maximum of 50 spots per center.

The new decree states that if an appeal presented by a migrant against his or her expulsion is deemed inadmissible, the defense lawyer doesn’t have the right to be paid.

It also establishes that someone who has been found guilty of bodily harm against persons who are not of sound mind, infirm, with a prognosis of over 20 days or minors cannot enter Italy, even if they have only been convicted by a court of first instance.

Those who have committed crimes “concerning practices of female genital mutilation” or that led to “permanent lesions to the face” will also be barred from staying in Italy.

The timeframe to present an appeal against the expulsion of foreigners with an EU long-term stay permit is also reduced from 30 to 15 days (and from 60 to 40 days if the person who appeals lives abroad).

The decree assigns more police inspectors and superintendents to embassies and consulates and establishes that an application for international protection can’t be processed if the applicant doesn’t go the police headquarters for the required procedures.

An application can only be suspended for nine months, down from the previous 12 months, if the asylum seeker leaves a hosting center, hotspot or permanent center for repatriation (CPR) without justification.