Migrants and the flows decree: how irregularities and scams arise

The same anomalies in the latest click days, those of last March, which concern entries for 2024. From Campania, where there were about 600,000 companies registered as of 31 March, 32.8 per cent of the applications arrived, more than three times as many as Lombardy, which instead has 940,000 companies and an unemployment rate of just over 4 per cent. Again, the Province of Naples has more applications than (added up) Veneto and Emilia Romagna, while the Provinces of Caserta and Salerno are looking for more foreign workers than Rome and Milan.

The click days are the first step in the procedure leading to the entry of non-EU workers into Italy. The next step is the issue of the work authorisation, followed by the visa, with which the worker can enter Italy. The last step is the sipula of the residence contract, which must be requested by the employer after the non-EU citizen's arrival in Italy. This is a fundamental step, which concludes the process and allows the non-EU citizen to have a residence permit for work reasons and to reside in our country legally. In theory, each entry quota provided for by the flows decree should lead to the signing of a residence contract. But this is not the case.

According to the analysis developed by the Ero Straniero campaign (based on data obtained through civic access to the data of the Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Labour), not even 24 per cent of the 82,705 entry quotas for non-EU workers made available with the click day of 27 March 2023 was transformed into a residence permit. For the 69,700 in 2022 (February 2022 click day) the success rate was a little higher, i.e. 35 per cent, but the picture does not change. The clear majority of the places made available by the flows decree did not lead to stable and regular employment.

On the other hand, the situation in Rome, Milan and Naples is very critical. There were 35 residence contracts signed in 2023 in Rome, two in Milan and none in Naples.

Why does it not lead to the signing of the residence contract? After the click day, the application that falls within the quotas passes to the Immigration Desk for examination to issue the nulla osta and is then forwarded to the Italian diplomatic representations in the countries of origin for the entry visa. Data from the Ero straniero campaign show that many quotas are 'lost' along the way. In some countries, the issuance of a visa takes a very long time and often results in a real bureaucratic hiccup. On average, it takes more than 120 days against the 20 stipulated by law.

It also happens, however, that non-EU workers enter Italy with a nulla osta and a regular visa, but are then not hired by the employer who had called them, who is no longer willing to hire them or is even untraceable. The latter eventuality can be caused by the delay in the worker's entry (even more than six months), which forced the company to find another solution, but also by incorrect requests from the outset. That is, from outright fraud, whereby the worker is asked for money to submit an application that is either not accepted, or, if accepted, does not lead to a regular recruitment. There is a real price list: the mere submission of the application 'costs' about 500 euro, while for entry into our country many non-EU workers say they have paid up to 12,000 euro.

It can happen, therefore, that people who have arrived in Italy legally, then become irregular because they do not sign a residence contract and find themselves in precarious situations that push them towards illegal work or - worse - towards exploitation by the underworld.

One of the critical points of the simplifications introduced in 2022 and 2023 to speed up the entry procedures for non-EU workers is the automatism in the issuance of the work permit. The Consolidation Act on Immigration (Legislative Decree 286/1998), amended for the last time by the 'Cutro' decree, Decree 20/2023, approved in March last year, provides in Article 22 (paragraph 5) that the Single Desk for Immigration, within a maximum of 60 days from the submission of the request on condition that the employer has verified at the employment centre the unavailability of a worker already present in Italy for the same job, and that the provisions of the collective labour contract applicable to the worker are respected, issues, 'in any case, having acquired the information from the competent police headquarters, the nulla osta in compliance with the numerical, quantitative and qualitative limits determined by the flows decrees'.

The one-stop shop, at the employer's request, then transmits the documentation to the consular offices, for the issuance of the visa to the worker, who (according to the law) must arrive in Italy from abroad. The Cutro decree then added a further paragraph (the 5.01), according to which 'The nulla osta is issued in any case if, within the term indicated in paragraph 5 (60 days), the information relating to the obstructive elements referred to in this article have not been acquired by the police headquarters'. A further provision created to simplify procedures, but in which irregularities and excessive automatisms have probably begun to be generated, also depending on the ability of the offices in the territory to provide feedback in a short time.

At a preliminary level, a check consists of the asseveration of applications for the employment of non-EU citizens submitted by aspiring employers by labour consultants and professional organisations. The verification of the suitability of the application is based on the financial capacity and economic-financial equilibrium of the applicant company and the number of foreign workers requested. asseveration is not required for applications submitted through trade associations (such as those in the agriculture and tourism sectors) that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Labour in which they undertake to ensure that their members meet the requirements for asseveration. For these applications, a fast track applies in which the automatic nihil obstat provided for in Article 22, paragraph 5.01 of the Consolidated Act on Immigration is triggered.

As revealed by the Ero straniero dossier cited above, the effectiveness of the procedure, with respect to the arrival of the residence contract, increases when applications are submitted through employers' associations.

Downstream controls are not easy, as the Labour Inspectorate had explained to Il Sole 24 Ore (see the edition of 26 February 2024, page 6). 'In our inspection activity,' said Massimiliano Mura, director of the National Labour Inspectorate and director of the inspectorate of the metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria, 'we have found both cases of workers arriving in Italy who have not found an employer willing to hire them, and cases of exorbitant requests for non-EU personnel compared to the entrepreneurial structure. Since 2022 the issue of the nulla osta,' Mura continued, 'has been automatic and, unless there is a negative opinion from the Questura or a stop by the Labour Inspectorate, the non-EU citizen can enter Italy. Sometimes, however, the residence contract is not concluded. To avoid an increase in distorted practices,' he concluded, 'we will be even more committed to controls, both ex ante and ex post'.

To prevent quotas from not being matched by residence contracts (and criminals from taking advantage of them), it would be necessary to encourage the use of the instrument (which already exists) of the residence permit pending employment in all cases in which the procedure is not successful for reasons not dependent on the worker. To date, according to Ero straniero, it is an instrument that is little used: in fact, there are only 146 permits for awaiting employment issued in relation to entries for 2022, and 84 for 2023.