Eighth Migrantes Report: ‘right to asylum increasingly at risk’

A turnaround in Italy, according to data from the latest Migrantes Foundation Report. Asylum applications are declining

“The right to asylum is established by the Constitutional Charter.” “European courts of justice protect the law.” Condemnation of “instrumental management of migration dramas.”

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella speaks at the States General of Diplomacy at the Farnesina and resoundingly rejects the policy of the Meloni government. This is the latest intervention on migration.

There are 130 million people fleeing war, hunger and thirst, violence and persecution in the world, a figure that is constantly rising. In Europe, more than 1.5 million asylum claims were filed in 2023 (up 20 percent).

But in the first data of 2024 there seems to be a reversal: in the first months of the year there were 449,000 applications with a 5 percent drop, the result of the xenophobic policy of the right-wing government.
In the first eight months of 2024, 109,000 people applied for some form of international protection, a figure up 32 percent.

This is what emerges from the Eighth Report on the Right to Asylum presented in Rome by the Italian Episcopal Conference’s Migrantes Foundation.

Findings compounded by the Council of Europe’s no-holds-barred condemnation, “In Italy, migrants are sedated and mistreated in detention and repatriation centers (CPRs).” The very specific condemnation comes from the Human Rights Organization’s Anti-Torture Committee.

Worldwide, of the 130 million fugitives, 68 million remain within their own countries; 69 percent seek refuge in neighboring countries, but three out of four of these countries are low- and middle-income. Only a fraction begin a long and dangerous journey to Europe: more than 520,000 irregular entries into Europe between 2023 and 2024.

More than 1.5 million apply for asylum. For years Syria and Afghanistan have been the main countries of origin of those fleeing and seeking shelter in the European Union. In Italy, as of January 1, 2024, there are less than 414 thousand non-EU citizens with residence permits for protection and asylum reasons, 0.7 percent of the population, and this is in spite of the trumpeted invasion. There are 138 thousand asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.

Asylum rights “increasingly at risk” in the European Union and Italy

The two editors note, “Italy’s responses to the root causes of these forced migrations, on the other hand, are not as swift, and there are too few government authorities and institutions that, with seriousness and authority, intend to pursue goals of peace and justice, while a mad arms race continues.”

Like the Episcopate, the Migrantes Report judges the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum to be “a downward compromise.” Flows on the routes of West Africa to the Canary Islands (+123%), the Eastern Mediterranean (+39%), the eastern land border (+193%) are found to be increasing sharply.

Fifty-four thousand asylum seekers landed in Italy in 2024: that’s 61 fewer, while other borders become increasingly crowded.
Ministers Salvini and Piantedosi can be satisfied: they have shifted the troubles to other European countries.

Arrivals from Bangladesh (almost 10,800) prevail; from Syria (10,000), not counting the last revolution with the flight of the “butcher” Assad; from Tunisia (12,000); from Libya (almost 20,000 arrivals), a country where there is no respect for human rights.

And in fact, the Report points out that rejections to Libya have grown and the number of refugees intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and deported to concentration camps “with an organized system of misery, harassment, cutthroatness and violence” is increasing.

The fact that the “Mare nostrum” has become the graveyard of these poor creatures is confirmed by the numbers: this year, 1,342 swallowed by the sea due to human wickedness.

The Report also calculates that the risk of losing their lives is one case for every 40 arrivals. In ten years (2014-2024), more than 68,000 migrants and refugees have lost their lives (or are “missing,” i.e., drowned), and nongovernmental organizations have saved 6,200 lives this year, one-fifth of those landed in Italy.

Humanitarian corridors

in ten years 7,831 people, including 6,807 in Italy, thanks also to the action of the Catholic Church and some Evangelical Churches, such as the Waldensian Church. Until July 2024, ”1,525 people have been sheltered, including 600 in humanitarian corridors and 863 through humanitarian evacuation initiatives.” There is more.

“From February 2016 to September 2024, thanks to the commitment of different associative and religious realities and to protocols signed in various states, the experience of humanitarian corridors allowed 7,831 people to reach Europe safely, of whom 6,807 in Italy.” As if to prove that, if one wants, immigrants can be rescued.