Dubbed the “Salvini decree” after Matteo Salvini, Italy’s far-right interior minister who drafted it, the bill will make it easier to deport migrants and take away their Italian citizenship.
“It’s a step forward to make Italy safer... to combat more effectively the mafia and traffickers, to reduce the costs of excessive immigration, to expel more quickly criminals and fake refugees, to revoke citizenship from terrorists, to strengthen police powers,” Salvini said of the document on Facebook.
The decree states that migrants could be deported if they are found guilty of serious crimes such as rape, assault and drug dealing.
Previously, this was only possible at the end of a lengthy appeals process.
The controversial document also allows for the extension of the time migrants can be detained in repatriation centres from three to six months and lays out stricter rules for obtaining citizenship.
“What we see in the new decree is another step in the Italian government’s repressive policies, aimed at an indiscriminate stop of flows and at the criminalisation of migration, at sea and on land,” Anne Garella, head of Doctors without Borders (MSF) Italy, said in a statement.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte argued that the decree was in line with human rights.
“We are revising legislation to make it more effective,” Conte said.
“The aim is to reorganise the whole system of recognising international protection to come in line with European standards.”
The decree, which must be converted into law within 60 days, has raised concerns that it will result in more migrants winding up without documents and rights in Italy.
In a separate development, the rescue ship Aquarius has had its registration revoked by the Panama Maritime Authority.
The move means that when the Aquarius next docks, it will have to remove its Panama flag and cannot set sail without a new registration, meaning it may get stuck in port.
SOS Mediterranee and MSF, the charities which run the Aquarius, claimed that Panama was pressured by the Italian government to strip the ship of its flag.
Salvini denied this accusation.
In a joint statement, the charities insisted they were in “full compliance” with maritime law and claimed that the decision will condemn hundreds of people to death.
Their plea was echoed by humanitarian organisations, including Amnesty International.
“The Aquarius has reportedly rescued more than 30,000 people over a period of more than two years. Deliberately depleting resources for saving lives in the central Mediterranean will expose thousands of people to the risk of a watery grave,” Elisa di Pieri, Amnesty International’s Europe Researcher, said.
“The Italian government is expressly attacking rescue NGOs in order to deter disembarkation in Italy. This results in migrants and refugees being taken back to Libya from where they have fled horrific abuses.”
