The reception of migrants in Italy is always an emergency and there are no different prospects

ROMA – Between temporary centers and structures in Albania, reception continues to be managed as an emergency in our country. He underlines this once again, with data and analysis openpolice, the independent and non-profit foundation that promotes projects for access to public information, transparency and democratic participation. Migration, however, is a structural phenomenon and to manage it in a virtuous way we must first understand it.

A few numbers

– Let’s start by saying that in 2022 only 35.7% of reception places were covered by the ordinary system (Sai). The rest are managed between CAS and first reception.

– The ratio between resident population and guests of reception centers reaches just 0.18%. A fact far from the idea of ​​”invasion” that we hear about. And talk too much

– In the North-East, attendance is higher than the average (0.21%) but not due to a political choice. In fact, 79% of the places are managed through government structures.

– In some provinces (including Florence and Reggio Emilia) reception is distributed across many municipalities. In others, however, the structures are concentrated in a few areas.

The emergency in a regulatory framework. Therefore, the Meloni government has not overcome the emergency approach to the migration issue, a trait already common with previous governments. The difference compared to the past lies in the fact that the current executive has even framed the “emergency” in a regulatory framework, first decreeing and then extending the state of immigration emergency.

The stratospheric costs of delocalisation. A confirmation of this is the question of reception centers in Albaniawhich has been talked about, even recently, to underline the exorbitant costs of the delocalisation of reception, not only on Mondo Solidale, but also on TV programs such as Reportas well as obviously on openpolice. A theme that has returned to the fore media even in these hours, due to the assignment of the management of the Albanian centers to Medihospesa hospitality giant that two of us took care of dossier of Centers of Italy, in 2020 and last year.

Facilities for asylum seekers and refugees.

Explore the reception system.

In short, the narrative of the migratory phenomenon, as well as its management, appears increasingly based on an emergency logic, despite the numbers saying that it is not an “invasion” at all.

The reception numbers. This approach does not help to structure a virtuous reception model and which does not appear justified by the numbers. In fact, in 2023, presences in the reception system reached a peak of 141 thousand people. Compared to the previous year, it was therefore necessary to find between 20 and 30 thousand places, as already happened between 2021 and 2022. – 121,325 places in the reception system at the end of 2022.

The serious issue of changing seats. The change in places in the reception system is a serious issue, which however does not constitute an exception. In fact, every year, depending on the flows, the overall number of people hosted varies. Precisely for this reason the law originally envisaged adding to the ordinary system (now known as the reception and integration system – Sai) the extraordinary reception centers (Cas) that could be activated by the prefectures, even with emergency procedures. Logic would therefore dictate that the Sai covers most of the needs, leaving the task of managing the most sudden changes to a more elastic system, that of the CAS.

The facts that deny the idea we have of the migratory phenomenon. Over the years, however, this formal approach has been continually contradicted by the facts. In fact, at the end of 2022 the ordinary reception system covered just 35.7% of places. In short, instead of investing in Sai(the reception and integration centres) the Meloni government went in the diametrically opposite direction, establishing even more extraordinary centers than Cas. Chiara Marchetti spoke about these “temporary centers”. Ciac Onlus in this report openpoliceabout which too little is known.

How reception varies in Italy. On the other hand, to structure a well-organized model it would be necessary to first know the current state of the system by considering its specificities from different points of view, including territorial ones. However, the necessary information is not made available by the public administration. In order to feed Centro d’Italia, the platform that collects data from the reception system (at the level of each centre, municipality by municipality), continuous requests for access to documents are necessary, with associated requests for review and possible appeals in court.

The absence of information. But the lack of information does not only affect ordinary citizens. In fact, the parliamentarians themselves are still waiting for the annual report on the state of the reception system in 2022 to be published. A document which, according to the law, should have been available by June last year.