A “financial guarantee” of almost 5 thousand euros as an alternative to detention in a detention and repatriation center during the procedure for ascertaining the right to access Italian territory. This is what is foreseen for asylum seekers in the decree of 14 September 2023, signed by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi in concert with his colleagues Carlo Nordio (Justice) and Giancarlo Giorgetti (Economy), published in the Official Gazette 221 of 21 September with the title «Indication of the amount and methods of provision of the financial guarantee payable by the foreigner during the conduct of the procedure for ascertaining the right to access the territory of the State». The guarantee of 4,938 euros must be «suitable to guarantee the foreigner, for the maximum period of detention, equal to four weeks (28 days), the availability of adequate accommodation on the national territory; of the sum needed for repatriation; minimum necessary means of subsistence”. The foreigner is given “immediate notice of the right, as an alternative to detention, to provide the financial guarantee”. The sum “is paid in a lump sum through a bank guarantee or insurance guarantee policy”. The guarantee is “individual and cannot be paid by third parties”. It must «be provided within the deadline in which the photodactyloscopic and signal detection operations are carried out» and «has a duration equal to the period necessary for carrying out the procedure at the border». The provisions apply “to citizens of states not belonging to the European Union who are in a position to be detained during the carrying out of the border procedure”.
In the event that the foreigner leaves unduly, the prefect of the place where the financial guarantee was provided proceeds to enforce it. The sums deriving from the enforcement of the guarantee in accordance with this decree are allocated to the State budget. The updating of the amount is started every two years, following the definition of the average cost of repatriation. A decision that did not please the opposition. For the secretary of +Europa it is “state smuggling”. «The government rule that asks asylum seekers to pay a sum of 5 thousand euros to avoid being detained inside the CPR is state smuggling, a discriminatory, classist and inhuman bribe towards those fleeing from hunger and war. We would be ashamed for even thinking that. But it gets worse: this rule is illegal as the European Court of Justice has already sanctioned a similar measure introduced by Hungary in 2020.”
The dem Debora Serracchiani declared: «It is clear that the Government does not know which way to turn and how they move they cause damage: this is the time of the absurd rule on the “financial guarantee”. The five thousand euros, either the asylum seekers don’t have them because they don’t own anything, or they do have them and then we can ask ourselves how they got them. Basically, those who have money will be able to dodge the CPR, while the most unfortunate will be locked up: it is an unacceptable criterion. Furthermore, they don’t even know where to put them, given that only today three migrants already expelled and with previous records were released because it was impossible to find a place in all the CPRs in Italy. Incompetence in power.”
