Italian lawmakers approve new measures to manage migration flows

The Italian parliament on Wednesday gave final approval to a package of measures to better manage the inflows of migrants and asylum seekers in the country.

The provision were already approved by Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's cabinet with a decree in February, but needed parliamentary approval within 60 days.

The lower house passed it with 240 votes in favor and 176 votes against.

On Tuesday, the cabinet called and won a confidence vote on the decree.

Key measures in the package include boosting repatriation of illegal migrants, and shortening the average proceeding time for those who submit a request of asylum.

New permanent repatriation centers will be set up across the country, one in every Italian region, and their capacity should not exceed 150 available places each, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in February.

Overall, the facilities will be able to host a total 1,600 migrants pending repatriation, and would be located near major transport infrastructures and, if possible, outside cities.

Another key pillar of the package concerns the length of asylum request proceedings. According to interior ministry's estimates, it currently takes Italian authorities two years to give a definite response to an asylum application, which was considered a long waiting time.

Three provisions were introduced to speed up such procedures: firstly, it will be cancelled one of the two degrees in the Italian court system to which asylum seekers can currently appeal, in the case that their request is turned down.

But the right to appeal to Italy's Court of Cassation will be reserved for the applicants in the case of rejection.

Secondly, asylum committees assessing all requests will be strengthened by recruiting 250 extra experts in order to alleviate their burden.

Thirdly, some 26 sections specialized in immigration, international protection, and free movement of European Union's (EU) citizens will be created in about 14 Italian courts.

Another measure allows asylum seekers waiting for a reply to their requests to be involved by Italian municipalities in "socially useful" jobs, such as maintenance of public spaces, or volunteer work with local charities.

This practice is already in place in some Italian cities, and would aim at helping asylum seekers better integrate into the Italian society, according to the authorities.

But the new measures would not apply to unaccompanied minor migrants. In fact, a specific law has recently been approved, ensuring them a comprehensive protection, and the prohibition of turning them down at the border and of repatriating them.

Italy has taken in a large majority of the migration flows coming from North Africa to Europe through the Mediterranean since last year. It registered a record of 181,436 arrivals in 2016, up 17.9 percent and 6.66 percent over 2015 and 2014 respectively.

Some 25,846 children and adolescents travelled alone to the country last year, more than twice the number registered in 2015.

Regarding asylum seekers, Italy received 123,600 requests in 2016 against 83,900 in 2015, which marked a 47 percent increase.

Some 91,000 of those requests have been examined overall, with about 54,000 rejected, according to the interior ministry. Enditem