![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Starting from the analysis of data on asylum applications between 2011 and 2017, this article seeks to identify the actors and processes that influenced the implementation of Italian asylum policy, and rates of success of asylum applications, during the refugee crisis. The article contends that the outcome of applications was determined by a complex interplay of external and internal-level variables: the evolution of the crisis and EU policies of crisis management in the former case; the approaches of governmental actors and the role of ‘street-level bureaucrats’, in the latter. Data derived from official documents, from EUROSTAT, from the UNHCR and from the Italian Ministry of the Interior were supplemented by interviews with Italian and EASO officials on the ground.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Dublin III Regulation (EU) N.604/2013 establishes the criteria for determining which EU country is responsible for assessing an asylum application. In cases of undocumented entry, the member state through which the asylum-seeker first entered the EU is responsible for assessing the asylum application. Consequently, the Dublin regime disproportionately affected EU member states with external borders, putting a severe strain on the asylum systems of those countries, which were overwhelmed by the large influx of asylum-seekers.
2. The time frame for the analysis starts in 2011, as this year marks a four-fold increase in asylum applications (over 40,000) on the figures for 2010 (10,000). The reason is the large number of asylum seekers fleeing Arab Spring countries and arriving in Italy.
3. Richiesta di Accesso Civico Generalizzato.
4. In 2008, Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and Libya’s leader, Muammar Gheddafi signed an Agreement to fight illegal migration and to return undocumented migrants to Libya.
5. Decrees of the President of the Council of Ministers on the ‘North African Emergency’, 12 February 2011; 7 April 2011; 8 October 2011; 15 May 2012. Circulars of the Italian Ministry of the Interior 8 April 2011; 26 October 2016.
6. Law n.146/2014, for a total of 20 Commissions and 30 Sections. For more information see: http://www.interno.gov.it/it/ministero/dipartimenti/dipartimento-liberta-civili-e-limmigrazione/commissione-nazionale-diritto-asilo.
7. Data relating to the period before 2014 not available for all nationalities.
8. Of the Eritreans and Syrians landing in Italy in 2017, only 8.5% and 5% respectively applied for protection. See ANCI et al. (Citation2017).
9. Interview no.2, EASO official, July 2018.
10. A refugee is a third-country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.
11. A third-country national who does not qualify as a refugee but who would face a real risk of suffering serious harm (torture, death penalty etc) if returned to his or her country of origin (Italian Decree 251/2007 and EU Directive 2011/95).
12. Legislative Decree 286/1998.
13. Italian Territorial Commissions consider a decision as ‘positive’ only if it recognizes international protection (refugee or subsidiary status). Humanitarian protection is not considered as a ‘positive’ outcome because, generally, it follows a denial of international protection. However, in this research, I consider ‘positive’ outcomes to be all those decisions that grant at least one form of protection in terms of refugee status, subsidiary or humanitarian protection. This is the same approach adopted by EUROSTAT and the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
14. Data for the period before 2014 are available only in aggregate form covering the years 1990 to 2013.
15. On the website of the Ministry of the Interior, the data relating to the decisions of individual Territorial Commissions are not disaggregated by nationality. Therefore, it is possible to know the total number of rejections and positive outcomes decided by a certain Commission, but not the rate of recognition/denial by nationality per single Commission. A formal request for data disaggregated by nationality, year and Commission was therefore submitted. At the time of writing, only Gorizia and Trapani had responded.
16. See OpenMigration https://openmigration.org/analisi/domande-dasilo-in-italia-tanti-dinieghi-in-prima-istanza-non-bastano-per-parlare-di-infondatezza/and Osservatorio Commissioni Territoriali https://www.meltingpot.org/Osservatorio-Commissioni-Territoriali.html#.XZByBEYzY2w.
17. Interview no.1, Territorial Commission August 2018.
18. Interview no.3, Territorial Commission, August 2018.
19. See Note 5.
20. Circular, Ministry of the Interior, 26 October 2012.
21. Decree n.60/2013.
22. Interview no.1, Territorial Commission official, 08/2018.
23. Telephone interview (no.4), former member of Territorial Commissions. 08/2018.
24. Interview no.3, Territorial Commission. 08/2018.
25. Interview no.2, EASO, 07/2018.
26. If an asylum-seeker is identified in Italy and still manages to lodge an asylum application in another European country, s/he is compulsorily returned to Italy.
27. Interview no. 5, Territorial Commission. 07/2018.
28. Interview no. 3 and no. 4, Territorial Commissions for different areas.
29. ‘Some member states complain with growing insistence about the incorrect fingerprinting of migrants’ (Circular, Ministry of the Interior, 25 September 2014).
30. Interview no.1, Territorial Commission, 08/2018.
31. Ibid.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Iole Fontana
Post-Doc Research fellow in the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Catania. She obtained her PhD in Institutions, Politics and Policies from the IMT-Institute of Advanced Studies, Lucca (Italy), following a period as a visiting scholar in the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics (UK) and in the Department of Politics and Law at the University of Hassan II in Casablanca (Morocco). She has worked as a research intern for the Delegation of the European Union in Tunisia and is a specialist in EU politics and Euro-Mediterranean relations. Her first book was published by Routledge in 2017. Her research currently focuses on migration, asylum, organised crime and migrant smuggling in the Mediterranean. She has recently been selected by the US Department of State to join the ‘Institute on US Foreign Policy 2019’ Program.