Sanatoria 2020 for domestic and agricultural workers: 69% of applications accepted
Offices still have to process 6,000 emersion applications submitted for foreign workers under the Relaunch Decree
3' min read
3' min read
More than four years after the amnesty provided for in the Relaunch Decree (Decree-Law 34/2020), the examination of applications submitted by employers for foreign workers employed in agriculture and family assistance is finally coming to an end. More than 6,000 workers are still waiting for a final answer.
According to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior to Il Sole 24 Ore on Monday, 96.9 per cent of the applications have been finalised. This is about 201 thousand applications, out of more than 207 thousand submitted in the summer of 2020. 69.4 per cent were accepted (about 144 thousand applications).
The residence permits actually issued, however, are fewer. The dossier prepared by the Ero straniero (I am a foreigner) Campaign, which in recent years has monitored the situation by requesting civic access to the Viminale's records, shows that 58% of the applicants, i.e. 120,368 people, have obtained residence permits for work or pending employment.
This difference is due not only to the slight time lag of the two data (those of Ero straniero are updated on 30 June while those of the Viminale are more recent) but also to the fact that several months can pass between the conclusion of the examination of the application and the actual issuance of residence permits.
'For workers, the delay in obtaining a residence permit,' reads the dossier that the Ero straniero campaign anticipated in Monday's Sole 24 Ore, 'means not being able to conclude another work contract, not being able to leave Italy or open a bank account. It is a limbo of legal uncertainty and precariousness that the institutions are not taking care of'.
