The government announced on Wednesday its experts will soon start work to amend a controversial immigration law approved by the previous
administration.
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella and Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said a group of experts from both ministries would begin reviewing the legislation on Monday, in a bid to have a draft proposal ready for the next cabinet meeting. Amato and other centre-left ministers have stated repeatedly that the centre left would follow through on its electoral promise to reform the law, saying radical revisions were needed.
Mastella and Amato said the most urgent reform would focus on stiffer penalties for those who ferry the would-be migrants across the Mediterranean on rickety boats that often capsize or shipwreck.
Italy is a popular destination for would-be immigrants seeking a gateway into Europe, and thousands leave from north African ports every year, heading for its southern shores. One of the main routes for would-be immigrants aiming to reach Europe is through the desert from central Africa, into Libya and up to ports on the northern coast. Here they pay organised crime groups to ferry them in creaking boats towards Italy.
Amato and Mastella said that the revisions would ensure that these people would be jailed on the charge of human trafficking, a crime which will be rendered compared to Mafia affiliation.
Reacting to the announcement, the leader of the opposition Christian Democrat party Gianfranco Rotondi said the government needed to discuss the issue with the centre right before changing the law.
"We need serious and responsible discussion on this matter and the opposition and the majority must tackle this together," said Rotondi.
But Angelo Bonnelli, House Whip for the Greens, argued that the law should be abolished and not revised. He also urged the government to discuss the immigration issue with its European Union partners and Libya, saying Italy could not face the growing phenomenon of illegal immigration on its own.
The immigration law was introduced by premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, which made cracking down on illegal immigration a key policy issue. It came under harsh fire from various quarters when it was approved in July 2002, drawing criticism from the opposition, unions, immigrant rights' groups and members of the Catholic Church.
The United Nations Refugee Agency refugee agency and Amnesty International also expressed reservations over its provisions for refugees and asylum seekers. Only non-EU foreigners already in possession of an Italian work contract are allowed a residency permit under the law, which is one of the toughest in Europe. Residency permits last only two years and should immigrants lose their job before the expiry date, they are
required to leave the country or else become illegal.
Earlier this summer Amato told the House's Constitutional Affairs Committee that this portion of the law was impractical and virtually impossible to enforce. "Action is needed in order to eliminate the fundamental hypocrisy of the [existing immigration] law, which requires immigrants to have signed a work contract before entering Italy," he said.
The law has already undergone a number of changes following a ruling by the Constitutional Court in July 2004 which criticised the lack of legal access for immigrants awaiting expulsion.
