Italy asked to repeal anti-migrants law

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:18:00 07/08/2009

MANILA, Philippines — A broad network of migrant workers in the Asia Pacific region and in Europe on Wednesday slammed a new law in Italy which will soon criminalize undocumented migrants.

The Network on Undocumented Migrant Workers, composed of grassroots organizations or migrants and non-government organizations, called on the Italian government to repeal the “most oppressive” law.

”Italy’s tougher law on undocumented migrant workers that includes stiffer fines and imprisonment, formation of so-called citizen’s groups to report undocumented migrants, and mandating parents to present documents of their legality before registering a child is the most repressive yet of all policies in the European Union on undocumented migrants,” said the group in a statement.

According to Philippine government estimates, there are some 13,000 undocumented Filipino workers in Italy. Of the 120,000 Filipinos in the European country, 25,000 are permanent residents while 83,000 are temporary residents.

It said it would make undocumented workers vulnerable to human rights abuses, as experienced by workers in other countries that treat as criminals those who have no legal papers.

Aside from criminalizing undocumented migrants, the new law also allows the use of volunteer informants as in Malaysia, which has been accused of human rights abuses when they raid houses and search places and people without any warrant.

The group said that the new requirement for parents to present their legal papers when they declare the birth of a child would also create a “generation of stateless children.”

With this new law, Italy has joined the ranks of countries like Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia for being the “most notorious” in terms of treating undocumented migrants.

In 2010, the European Union is set to implement the Return Directives Policy that will result in the roundup hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants in the region and their deportation without any consideration to their rights. In March, the EU also passed the European Commission Employers Sanctions Directive, which the group said does not recognize the labor rights of undocumented migrant workers.

“The dreaded ‘Fortress Europe’ is already taking shape as the EU implements stricter border controls while intensifying crackdowns on those already present in its member-countries. This is becoming more pronounced now as the global crisis fans anti-migrant worker sentiments, discrimination and xenophobia throughout the world,” the group sid.

It also pointed out that the new law comes at a time when the Third Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) that purports to protect migrant workers would be convened in Greece, an EU member-country, in November.

”While it pronounces protection, the GFMD has made no attempt to concretely address burning concerns of migrant workers but instead just create policies and guidelines to intensify the ‘commodification’ of migrant workers and the cornering of remittances for so-called development that is not really for the migrants and their families,” the group said.

Network members include Migrante Europe, Indies Indonesia; Kasammako-Korea; Migrante Middle East, Institute for Migrant Workers-Indonesia; FIOB (Mexico), USA; Migrante United Arab Emirates; Tenaganita, Malaysia; Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants; May 1st Coalition, USA; Umangat-Rome; NLO, Nepal; Atik, The Netherlands; and Atik, Germany.