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### Viewing cable 09ROME437, NO MORE MR. NICE GUY (I): INEFFECTIVE ITALIAN

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09ROME437 | 2009-04-17 12:12 | 2011-02-24 16:04 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Rome

`

    VZCZCXRO2604
    PP RUEHAG RUEHROV RUEHSR
    DE RUEHRO #0437/01 1071247
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    P 171247Z APR 09
    FM AMEMBASSY ROME
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1940
    INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
    RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 0789
    RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 0563
    RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 1354
    RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST PRIORITY 0618
    RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KYIV PRIORITY 0318
    RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA PRIORITY 0173
    RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0433
    RUEHTI/AMEMBASSY TIRANA PRIORITY 4336
    RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 0517
    RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA PRIORITY 0042
    RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE PRIORITY 0234
    RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN PRIORITY 9986
    RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES PRIORITY 3768
    RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY 4804

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ROME 000437

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2014
    TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF IT
    SUBJECT: NO MORE MR. NICE GUY (I): INEFFECTIVE ITALIAN
    RESPONSE TO IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES

    ROME 00000437  001.2 OF 003

    Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Elizabeth L. Dibble for reasons 1.4 (b
    ) and (d).

    Summary
    --------

    ¶1. (SBU)  Recent tragic reports of boatloads of African
    immigrants crossing from Libya to Lampedusa, a 12 square mile
    island off of the coast of Sicily, have transfixed local,
    regional and international audiences.  The arrivals have
    accelerated a law and order approach to irregular immigration
    promised by Prime Minister Berlusconi during his election
    campaign in 2008 and distilled in the recent public promise
    to ""be mean to illegal immigrants"" by Interior Minister
    Maroni, a leader in the anti-immigration Northern League
    political party.  But forceful public diplomacy, new and
    reinvigorated bilateral repatriation agreements with source
    countries, outreach to the EU, extended detention of
    irregular immigrants and tough security legislation have
    failed to stop the flows of irregular immigrants.  The
    dramatic plight of the boat people, most of whom are
    undocumented, masks the fact that they constitute less than
    15 percent of total arrivals of irregular migrants (although
    there was a 75 percent surge in the number of immigrants
    arriving by boat in 2008 and the trend line in the first
    quarter of 2009 appears constant).  The majority of irregular
    immigrants present in Italy -- estimated to number up to
    650,000 but the number is likely even higher -- arrive by
    land, air or sea.  Arriving from non-EU countries, primarily
    Morocco, Albania, China, Ukraine and the Philippines, they
    have obtained visitors visas and overstay, encouraged by
    Italy's porous borders and history of ""regularizing"" illegal
    immigrants.  Although Italy successfully expelled some 25,000
    persons in 2008, a majority of expulsion orders are not
    executed because of a lack of resources; Italy has less than
    3,000 available beds for detention.  In addition to the
    irregular migrants from non-EU countries, Italy is a popular
    destination for migrants from Eastern European countries such
    as Romania and Bulgaria, whose citizens are able to move
    freely following EU accession in 2007.

    ¶2.  (SBU)  Frustrated by the non-stop flow of migrants to and
    through Italy, government officials complain privately about
    Libya's complicity in the trafficking of refugees and the
    failure of the EU to do more to help the southern tier states
    cope with the problem.  They have mounted an aggressive
    diplomatic campaign with affected states to win their
    cooperation in limiting irregular flows to Italy, including
    hosting a conference April 16-17 for police chiefs of 72
    nations.  Although Interior Ministry officials have told the
    embassy that they believe there is little terrorist threat
    from irregular immigrants, and government statistics reveal
    an overall drop in crime in all major Italian cities in 2008,
    Prime Minister Berlusconi, Interior Minister Maroni, other
    senior officials, and the Italian press (of which Berlusconi
    controls a  majority) continuously hype a connection between
    crime and terrorism and illegal immigrants. Critics of the
    government's approach argue that Italy needs a comprehensive
    integration policy that acknowledges the demographic changes
    in Italian society -- an aging population, a declining birth
    rate and the presence of some four million foreign residents
    in a population of 60 million.  They argue that immigration
    should be treated as a resource, not a threat, and fear that
    scapegoating irregular immigrants will radicalize Italy's
    ""second generation"" of legal migrants, including more than
    one million Muslim immigrants.

    ¶3. (SBU)  This is the first in a series of three reporting
    cables on immigration in Italy.  This first reporting cable
    describes the current situation.  The second reports on the
    government's reaction to the immigration challenge.  The
    third examines concerns about the limitations of the
    government's approach and previews the outlook for the
    future.

    Current Situation: Rubbery Statistics

    ROME 00000437  002.2 OF 003

    -------------------------------------

    ¶4. (SBU)  Statistics.  In defining the immigration picture in
    Italy, government and NGO statistics generally agree that in
    2008 Italy had 3, 433,000 resident legal immigrants out of a
    total population of 59,619,290 people.  In addition, there
    are 767,000 immigrant children under the age of 18.   Another
    250,000 persons have applied for legal status. (Note:
    According to Italy's citizenship law, a foreigner born in
    Italy cannot apply for citizenship until the age of 18.  A
    legal resident must wait ten years before applying for
    citizenship. Neither category is permitted to travel outside
    of Italy during these waiting periods.  On the other hand,
    foreigners who marry Italian citizens can acquire citizenship
    in a relatively straightforward process.  Given the overall
    difficulties in acquiring Italian citizenship, a significant
    number of legal immigrants are not citizens.  Rather they
    possess residence permits, typically tied to employment,
    issued by the government.  End note.)  Of these approximately
    four million legal immigrants, the charity Sant'Egidio
    estimates up to one million are EU residents, and the
    majority of these are Romanian.  Of the remaining three
    million legal residents from non-EU countries, approximately
    one million are Muslim.  The result is that there are almost
    7 foreigners in every 100 Italians, slightly over the EU
    average, although the ratio increases to 10 in Rome and 14 in
    Milan.  Since 1986, Italy has undertaken five
    ""regularizations,"" granting more than one million residence
    permits to previously irregular migrants. Estimates of the
    current number of irregular immigrants range from half a
    million to 650,000 and higher, although no one knows for
    sure.

    ¶5. (SBU)  Irregular labor market.  According to Caritas, a
    Catholic charity that provides government-funded support to
    immigrants, two-thirds of Italy's immigrants are working in
    Italy's industrialized north.  Most work in small firms.  The
    balance engage in family care throughout Italy and in
    seasonal agricultural work predominantly in the south.  The
    Italian research institute IMSU recently completed an
    in-depth survey of the immigration situation in the region of
    Lombardy, including Milan, which illustrates this employment
    picture.  In 2008, there were just over one million
    immigrants in Lombardy, a 13 percent increase since 2007.
    Half of this population is estimated to be irregular and
    these persons work in the following sectors:  14.6 percent as
    industry laborers; 13.1 percent as construction workers; 9.8
    percent in the restaurant/hotel industry; 7.1 percent as
    domestics on an hourly basis; and 6.5 percent as live-in
    domestics.

    ¶6. (SBU)  Boat migrants.  One small slice of the illegal
    immigrant population is well-documented:  the approximately
    15 percent who make their way from Africa across the
    Mediterranean in flimsy and overcrowded boats.  The IOM
    registered the arrival of 31,236 persons by boat to Lampedusa
    in 2008.  The Interior Ministry records a total number of 36,
    951 persons arriving by boat to the southern Italian regions
    of Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily (including Lampedusa) and
    Calabria in 2008.  By contrast the number of persons arriving
    by boat recorded by the Interior Ministry in 2007 was 20,455
    -- a 75 percent increase from one year to the next.
    According to the IOM, the major source countries of the
    arrivals in Lampedusa in 2008 were Tunisia (6,799), Nigeria
    (6,070), Somalia (4,106), Eritrea (3,374), Morocco (2,032),
    Ghana (1,802), and Palestine (833).  Significantly, the
    number of Tunisians arriving in Lampedusa jumped by nearly
    six thousand persons in 2008.  According to UNHCR, 31,200
    persons requested asylum in Italy in 2008; some 8,000 were
    granted asylum.  This represents an almost 30 percent
    increase in asylum requests since 2005.

    ¶7. (C)  Sea crossing.  Nearly all of the persons arriving by
    boat in Lampedusa departed from Libya.  NGOs who work with
    immigrants report that traffickers tell the boat migrants to
    head for an ENI oil rig platform.  Upon arrival at the

    ROME 00000437  003.2 OF 003

    platform, they are told to head due north to Lampedusa.  Each
    year 120,000 persons out of 450,000 immigrants to Europe are
    estimated to cross the Mediterranean by boat, and no one
    knows for sure how many die in the attempt.  In the first
    quarter of 2009, hundreds of refugees have continued to
    arrive by boat each week in Lampedusa.  Although all states
    are required under international law to render assistance to
    refugees in distress, there is a presumption in Italy that
    the Italian border police undertake the lion's share of the
    response to distress calls, a perception shared by NGOs.  One
    former member of the Carabinieri who worked for Interpol told
    us that when FRONTEX, the EU border control agency, receives
    reports of boats in distress, all governments in the region
    are notified, but only the Italians regularly take active
    steps to rescue the migrants.  During a visit to Malta in
    February, a member of the Armed Forces of Malta told us the
    AFM responds to distress calls within its limited capacity,
    but admitted if the boat is deemed seaworthy the AFM points
    the migrants toward Lampedusa.

    ¶8. (C)  Overstayers.  Government and NGO officials tell us,
    however, that the majority of irregular immigrants enter
    Italy with a visa and then overstay.  Italian border police
    chief Rodolfo Ronconi asserted that 57 percent of immigrants
    who enter Italy with a visa overstay.  Most arrive through
    the land border in the northeast but also through air and sea
    ports.  Vincenzo Delicato, a senior director of the National
    Police, told us that these illegal immigrants are primarily
    from Morocco, Albania, China, Ukraine and the Philippines.
    He explained that the border police do not screen EU
    residents and conduct only spot checks on non-EU residents.
    Interior Ministry statistics for 2008 record 70,625
    ""stranieri rintracciati"" (or ""tracked foreigners,"" an
    implicit acknowledgement of a population of untracked
    foreigners), of whom only 24,234 were repatriated.  The
    remaining 46,931 were considered not in compliance with
    expulsion orders.  The 2007 statistics are comparable.  Other
    government statistics indicate that only 20 percent of
    illegal immigrants subject to an expulsion order are actually
    repatriated.  For example, in Milan in 2007, only 653 persons
    out of 3,088 subject to an expulsion order were in fact
    repatriated.

    ¶9. (C)  Insufficient capacity.  There are several
    explanations for this large presence of irregular immigrants.
     First, according to the vice president of immigration for
    Caritas, Le Quyen Ngo Dinh, ""Italy does not really know how
    they arrive and how many they are,"" meaning that most
    visitors are not subject to border control or judicial
    review.  Second, for those who come into contact with the
    state and are judged as irregular, Italy has limited
    detention space: nationwide there are 10 centers of
    identification and expulsion, with a capacity of fewer than
    3,000 beds, and a handful of ""welcome"" centers near southern
    Italian seaports to screen immigrants arriving by boat.  The
    result is that Italy cannot detain all those subject to
    expulsion order, which means many of them simply fail to
    comply.  Moreover, some of those expelled return, gambling
    correctly that they can again slip through Italy's porous
    borders, including 1,500 miles of coastline.  Third, many
    governments of source countries refuse to cooperate with
    Italian authorities in identifying undocumented immigrants.
    These individuals can still be subject to expulsion orders
    but cannot be repatriated without an identity.
    Fundamentally, argues Ngo Dinh, Italy lacks the structural
    capacity to manage the large numbers of illegal migrants to
    the country.  As Paolo Ciani, who helps immigrants for the
    Italian charity Sant'Egidio, said simply: ""Not only is the
    government policy (dealing with immigrants) morally wrong,
    it's ineffective.""

    DIBBLE
    "

`