Italian coalition passes bill to crack down on refugees and migrants seeking asylum

ITALY’S populist government has passed a bill that will make it harder for migrants to claim humanitarian protection and easier to expel failed asylum seekers.

The decree is part of the coalition’s campaign to reduce the number of migrants and refugees arriving by boat from North Africa and to repatriate those who are denied asylum status after they arrive.

It came as the last migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean had its registration revoked by Panama, with humanitarian groups accusing Italy of being behind the move.

Matteo Salvini, the Italian interior minister, said that migrants or refugees who requested asylum would have their applications denied if they were considered “socially dangerous” or convicted of crimes. Those crimes could include dealing drugs and bagsnatching, said Mr Salvini, who is head of the anti-immigration League party.

Prior to the bill, it was only possible to expel migrants accused of committing crimes after they had been through a lengthy appeals process.

“I’m happy,” Mr Salvini wrote on Facebook after the decree was passed. “This is a step forward in making Italy safer – fighting Mafiosi and traffickers, reducing the cost of an overblown immigration system and expelling more rapidly delinquents and fake refugees. The more the Left attack me, the more strength they give me.”

Italy’s parliament now has 60 days in which to debate the decree and vote it into law. Maurizio Martina, the head of the centre-left Democratic Party, said the bill would lead to an increase in “clandestine” immigration.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian vessel Aquarius, operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres and SOS Mediterranee, will no longer be able to patrol the waters north of the Libyan coast in search of migrant boats. The organisations said they were “reeling” from the decision and claimed the Panama Maritime Authority had been “forced” to revoke the registration of the search and rescue vessel “under blatant economic and political pressure from the Italian government”. “This announcement condemns hundreds of men, women and children who are desperate to reach safety to a watery grave,” they said.

Mr Salvini welcomed the move, saying: “I can assure all Italians that this ship will never again be allowed to arrive in Italy.”