Its Deja Vu All Over Again: More Immigration News from Italy

Last week, we reported oin the rise in nativism in Italy.  In some ways, it all sounds like back to the future all over again.

 AP now reports that Italy’s lower chamber of parliament passed a bill last Wednesday making it a crime to enter or stay in Italy illegally.  Doesn’t this sound like the Sensenbrenner Bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December 2006, which led to mass marches of hundreds of thousands of people across the United States?  The legislation makes entering or staying in Italy without permission a crime punishable by a fine of $5-10,000 EUROS ($6,840-$13,670). The bill provides for up to three years in prison for anyone who rents housing to an undcoumented immigrant. The Senate must approved the bill for it to become law.

Italy also has taken steps to deal with “asylum abuse.”  Last year, more than 36,000 migrants from Africa (including Libya) and elsewhere arrived in Italy by boat.  Last year, 31,160 people requested asylum in Italy — more than double the number from 2007. Earlier this month, Italy started sending back to Libya boatloads of migrants it intercepted in international waters without first screening them for asylum claims. Doesn’t this sound like the United States’ Haitian interdiction and repatriation program in place for the last 15+ years?  Professor Lori Nessel (Seton Hall) has just completed a thoughtful article offering a comparative analysis on the efforts of the European Union and the United States to curtail migration by sea.  Download Externalized Borders.Nessel.fnl

AP reports that “The U.N. refugee agency, the Vatican and human rights organizations voiced outrage, saying Italy was breaching international law. The government, which has complained that it has been left by the European Union to deal with illegal immigration alone, has defended the new policy, saying the U.N. refugee agency can screen the migrants in Libya.”

KJ