Hotspots, Rights Denied: The lack of a legal framework is threatening the rights of migrants reaching Italy

Overview

The flow of migrants into Italy continues to be dealt with as an ’emergency’ situation.  The EU’s ‘hotspot’ approach, outlined in the European Agenda for Migration of  May 2015 as a short-term measure, has been implemented in Italy and Greece  and is an approach involving EU officers, in collaboration with national authorities, in the identification, fingerprinting and registration of migrants.

This paper from Oxfam Italia examines the hotspot approach in Italy through the experiences of humanitarian agencies and civil society organizations on the ground, and through the voices of migrants themselves. It concludes that, due to the lack of a legal framework, the hotspot approach seriously violates the fundamental rights of people reaching Italian shores.  Oxfam calls for the Italian government and the European Union to define hotspot procedures and activities in EU and national regulations and to take medium-term action to expand the capacity of the receiving and support systems in Italy.