Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Friday that Italy’s newly passed Cutro law will have “devastating impacts” on migrants’ rights, and threaten their ability to seek protection, access fair asylum and move freely throughout the country. The law passed last week in response to a February shipwreck on the coast of Italy which left more than 80 migrants dead. HRW called upon Italy to “reverse course and ensure a humane and rights-respecting response to sea crossings.”
A central aspect of the law is that it will make it more difficult for people to obtain “special protection” (protezione speciale), which provides a temporary right to migrants to remain in Italy under humanitarian and family grounds. The new regime prevents migrants from converting this protection into a work permit, which HRW claims may result in an increase in undocumented workers across Italy.
The law also impacts on detention restrictions, as it extends the maximum period of lawful detention pending deportation by 12.5 percent–from 120 days to 135 days. The law also introduces a new procedure for detaining asylum seekers at Italy’s border for up to four weeks while authorities process their claim. Under the new procedure, Alice Autin, an officer in HRW’s Communications and International Justice Program, emphasized that “access to vital services in first reception centers, such as psychosocial assistance, legal information, and language courses” is removed.
This is the latest in a series of Italian anti-immigration policies which have drawn international condemnation. In January, civil organizations engaged in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea condemned a decree from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that required vessels to return to shore after making a rescue, rather than continuing to search for more survivors. And in November 2022, a civil search and rescue organization launched legal action against the Italian government after the government failed to allow 35 rescued migrants to disembark in Italy. The UN previously called upon Italy to reverse course on their increasingly strict immigration policies in November 2018.
