The Flows Decree for the entry of foreign female and male workers 27 years after the approval of the TU on Immigration in addition to being blatantly ineffective continues to produce irregularities and injustices.

It has never been a tool for ensuring legal and safe entry because it relies on the remote matching of labor supply and demand. It is a mechanism far removed from the reality of the world of work and is at best an amnesty in disguise.

The Meloni government has modified the rules without, however, changing the substance of this measure, which continues to be unworkable. Some positive modifications have been introduced in recent years, but they are not enough to overcome the chronic delays, lack of transparency, and opacity of the intermediation mechanisms that continue to leave thousands of people in the hands of exploiters and unscrupulous individuals.

The data published by the Ero Straniero campaign show the failure of the recent Flussi Decrees, which allowed tens of thousands of people to enter Italy with an entry visa and a hiring clearance, but with significant delays in the procedures, which are now structural. These people, once in Italy, in a large number of cases did not find the employer or employer who had applied for them, or found that they did not comply with the conditions laid down, with the result that they soon found themselves in an irregular position. Some were victims of scams or, in the worst cases, the mechanism of human trafficking for labor exploitation, finding themselves in an irregular condition of residence in these cases as well.

These people are today on our territory without a residence permit due to causes beyond their control, having complied with all the procedure prescribed by the Law.

They are therefore victims of the same mechanism that should have brought them safely and legally to Italy, and as such are entitled to a title to stay and work legally in Italy.

There are also tens of thousands of foreign working citizens, victims of the previous flussi decrees, who work illegally, often exploited and victims of trafficking and caporalato. For them, too, it would be necessary to find channels for regular emersion.

This is not just an administrative issue: failure to obtain a residence permit also affects access to essential services such as health care, making both enrollment in the NHS and guaranteeing the right to health care more problematic.

Moreover, our country today is in great difficulty in finding workers in a great many areas, partly because of the strong emigration of young and not-so-young people, both Italian and foreign-born. Italy’s interest is to attract people to work regularly and not to push it into the area of undeclared work.

On several occasions in the past, the government by an administrative act, a simple circular, has clarified the right of workers in the same condition to obtain a residence permit.

Therefore, taking up the appeal coming precisely from the foreign workers who participated in the Flows Decree and who have mobilized in recent weeks, we call on the government and all institutions to guarantee the right of all people who have been victims of fraud or who upon their entry have not found the employer who had applied for them to obtain a residence permit for work or pending employment, as already provided for in Circular No. 3836 of August 20, 2007 of the Ministry of the Interior.

We will be at the fiace of all victims of fraud or deception to obtain justice because Italy needs workers in good standing and not additional blackmailable labor force to be exploited and also the object of xenophobic and securitarian propaganda.

On December 18,1972, a truck, which was supposed to transport sewing machines, has an accident under the Mont Blanc tunnel in which 28 African workers from Mali lose their lives. Hidden in the truck for days, they had been traveling to France in search of work and better living conditions. Little or nothing has changed since then despite the fact that the International Day of Migrant Workers and their Families was born out of that incident.

That is why next December 18 in many cities we will promote assemblies, initiatives and mobilizations to support a radical change of the Flows Decree and migration policies more generally.

Sponsored by

A BUON DIRITTO, ACLI, ACTIONAID, ARCI, ASCS, ASGI, CASA DEI DIRITTI SOCIALI, CGIL, CIES, CNCA, COMMISSIONE MIGRANTES MISSIONARI COMBONIANI ITALIA, EMERGENCY, ERO STRANIERO, EUROPASILO, FORUM PER CAMBIARE L’ORDINE DELLE COSE, ITALIANS WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP, MEDICI DEL MONDO, OXFAM, RECOSOL, SIMM, UIL, UNITE

For memberships [email protected]