Invisibles at the times of an invisible enemy: migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Italy during the Coronavirus pandemic

Migrants on board an NGO rescue boat wearing surgical mask to reduce contagion risks after being rescued in the Mediterranean in late February. (Image by Google Images/Affaritialiani)

By Mattia Collini | University of Florence

While most of the world is now fighting an invisible enemy, the category of invisibles has also expanded beyond microbial things. Among, these, at least in Italy, we find migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Migration was a hot topic in Italian politics and media, however, with the explosion of the COVID-19 outbreak, this issue, as well as practically all ‘ordinary’ ones we were used to, suddenly disappeared, with the whole public, and political attention - understandably - focused on the virus.

However, vulnerable categories did not vanish with the arrival of the virus, and we shall shed some light on the situation of MRAs in Italy in these dire times, as well as the main measures that the Italian authorities have taken in this regard. Indeed, the COVID-19 emergency lockdown did not eliminate the migration crisis in the perception of people and public discourse, while the situation under several respects actually got even worse, for both the reception system, and several thousands of regular and irregular migrants outside the reception system.

Migrants did not disappear with the arrival of the virus, and while legal migration has been suspended along with all the travel restrictions emplaced, migration routes were never completely shut down. Looking at the numbers of the reception system, between January 1, 2020 and April 15, 2020, a total of 3,231 migrants arrived in Italy, a substantial increase compared to the past year when only 625 arrivals were registered. Still, the vast majority of arrivals were recorded in January-February, while there were just 241 in March and 436 in the first half of April. Noteworthy, is the fact that there has been an increase in the presence of people of Bengalese origin, while the bulk of migrants are still from sub-Saharan Africa. As we can see, at the peak of the crisis and the coronavirus lockdown in Italy, only a few migrants landed on the coasts of Italy, with such occurrences registered in only five days of March. They were generally followed by the usual rhetoric of the far right, which kept playing the card of migration as a securitarian issue, implying the resources spent for the reception of migrants would be better allocated to fighting the health crisis. Yet, in April we saw a substantial increase with 571 arrivals, more than twice those registered in the past year, a sign that, that if the pandemic somehow kept migrants away during its worst phase, the phenomenon seems to be again on the rise. This actually happened despite the unprecedented restrictive measures taken by the government at the beginning of April, which declared Italy as ‘unsafe’ for the landing of people rescued from boats flying a foreign flag due to the Coronavirus outbreak, stating that the security of migrants’ lives in Italy cannot be guaranteed at the moment. This move was strongly opposed by ONG that are operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean, and who are denied the possibility to land rescued migrants in Italian ports, and who are criticised by several legal experts on migration and human rights. Still, as of late April, the decree is still in force, even though some boats were ultimately allowed to dock and quarantined (i.e. the ‘Alan Kurdi’ case).    

Migrants being tested for COVID-19 in a CAS (Centro di Assistenza Straordinaria) reception centre. (Image by Google Images/Affaritialiani)

Besides new arrivals, other critical elements were the safety and functioning of the reception system, which host about 85.000 refugees and asylum seekers, not including several hundred hosted in informal centres. In these structures, we often have large masses of people, and the conditions rarely allow guaranteedsafety measures and sanitation rules aimed at avoiding the spread of coronavirus; and the medical staff in the facilities is insufficient. At the beginning of the crisis, each facility was basically left alone to cope with the situation based on their capabilities and will. In the absence of a clear framework or directives from the Government, several local authorities tried to prescribe new protocols to ensure distancing and provide protection equipment, but in several cases many directives couldn’t be applied for lack of facilities and materials amid the general crisis. It was just at the beginning of April that the ministry of interior solicited all the prefectures to take actions in order to prevent the diffusion of the virus in the reception centres. Furthermore, most of the migrants hosted in reception centres are located in Lombardy (about 1/7), which is the region most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, totalling almost half of the number of infected persons and deaths in Italy. There is also another problem linked to the limited access to local healthcare services for migrants hosted in the CARA and CAS reception centres due to the different legislations applied by the various regional governments. Nevertheless, there have been relatively few documented cases of migrants hosted in reception centres testing positive for the virus.

Finally, there is the most invisible element: the fate of tens of thousands of precarious and irregular migrants. Among those, we have a large number of people that become irregular after having been denied a humanitarian permit of stay, or who didn’t have one renewed, a consequence of the new regulations enforced by the “Security Decree” (or “Salvini Decrees) approved in 2019. Many of these new irregulars are now living in informal settlements or abandoned buildings, completely out of sight from the authorities, posing also a potential healthcare problem. As stated by the UNHCR “migrants and refugees are disproportionately vulnerable to exclusion, stigma and discrimination, particularly when undocumented. To avert a catastrophe, governments must do all they can to protect the rights and the health of everyone”. In this regard, despite theoretically granting universal access to healthcare services, not much has changed during the crisis. Among the few concrete measures undertaken by the government, there was the prorogation of the hosting period in reception centres ‘until the end of the emergency’ also for those who for different reasons would have lost it during this period. Several appeals to regularise irregular migrants have been made, following the example of Portugal, but they did not result in any concrete measures. Still, there is a proposal in discussion at the governmental level to regularise most of the illegal migrants present in Italy, allowing them to be tracked and to (legally) replace the seasonal migrant workers who cannot come to Italy due to travel restrictions. 

UPDATE 25/05/2020

After a prolonged debate among the governing coalition, a compromise was reached, and a regularisation of some irregular migrants has been added into the “Relief decree” approved by the Council of Ministers on 13 May (article 110bis, DL 19/05/2020 n. 34). As a result of the political compromise that lead to its approval, the measure does not allow for a generalised regularisation of migrants, but it focuses on some specific categories. First, it applies only to migrants that were already present in Italy as of March 8 2020 (the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in Italy), and working in three specific areas: agriculture, fishery, domestic work and care. Two paths have been created for the regularisation and emergence of black market workers. The first is a work permit for those who are actually working in the above-mentioned sectors, who will get a regular contract from their employer. The second path is reserved for those who are currently unemployed and have an expired residence permit (since October 2019), but in the past have been working (with a regular contract) in those sectors. They can now get a 6 month temporary permit to find a new job. An estimate form the Ministry of Interior, expect around 220.000 irregular migrants to be regularised with this new legislation. The decree can still be modified by the Parliament in the ratification process, but, according to various political sources, its general structure would not be changed.