Vita gazette – The decree, recently adopted by the government, targets human traffickers worldwide. Anyone involved in smuggling is sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

After the tragedy of Cutro, which saw over 70 migrants die at sea, the Executive convened an extraordinary Council of Ministers in the Calabrian municipality.

Meloni: This government wants to go looking for smugglers all over the globe

On this occasion, the government approved a new immigration decree with the declared objective of punishing human traffickers with very severe penalties and regulating incoming migratory flows. “We are used to an Italy that goes looking for migrants in the Mediterranean, but this government wants to go looking for smugglers all over the globe”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a press conference, adding that the issue will have to be “also brought to international level because on this the more we manage to harmonise the legislations and the more we do something useful”.

Following the February 26 disaster in which at least 72 irregular migrants died, Italy adopted a new decree that further toughened its stance against human traffickers. A crackdown on traffickers, with a relative tightening of the penalties concerning them, and a new management of the flows of legal immigrants are the basis of the so-called “immigration decree” on which the government is working in the great council of ministers of Cutro. For smugglers, penalties are expected to increase by up to 30 years if they cause the death of several people.

Everyone in the smuggling chain will be punished.

A crackdown, therefore, on the traffickers of human lives. With penalties that rise exponentially, up to 30 years for those who cause death, as in the massacre in the small Calabrian town. More generally, for those who attempt a business by trafficking human lives on our seas, the penalties rise to 16 years.

Specifically, “whoever, in violation of the provisions of this consolidated text, promotes, manages, organises, finances or carries out the transport of foreigners into the territory of the State or performs other acts aimed at illegally obtaining their entry into the part of the State, or of another State of which the person is not a citizen or has no permanent residence permit when transportation or access is carried out in such a way as to expose people to danger to their life or safety or to subject them to inhuman treatment or degrading, is punished with imprisonment from twenty to thirty years if the fact leads, as an unintended consequence, to the death of several people. Furthermore, the same penalty applies if the end of one or more people and serious or very serious injuries to one or more people result from the act.

“If the fact results in the death of only one person, the penalty of imprisonment from fifteen to twenty-four years is applied. If serious or severe injuries are caused to one or more people, the penalty of imprisonment from ten to twenty years is applied”. More generally, for those who organise the smuggling of migrants on our seas, the sentences go from the current one to five years to ‘two to six years’. If the trafficking concerns a group of 5 or more migrants, the sentences go from five to fifteen years and six to sixteen years. The fines remain unchanged, at 15,000 euros for each migrant illegally boarded.

Flows Decree

The immigration decree also includes a part relating to flows; this is what we read in the draft: “For the three years 2023-2025, the maximum quotas of foreigners to be admitted into the territory of the State for subordinate work, also for seasonal needs and self-employment, are defined, notwithstanding the provisions of article 3 of legislative decree 25 July 1998, n. 286, by decree of the President of the Council of Ministers”. Therefore, the number of migrants who can enter our country will be established with three-year decrees. Further flow decrees may be adopted if “the opportunity is deemed appropriate”.

Furthermore, according to the draft, “to prevent irregular immigration, the decrees referred to in this article preferentially assign quotas reserved for workers of States which, also in collaboration with the Italian State, promote for own citizens media campaigns concerning the risks for personal safety deriving from the inclusion in irregular migratory traffic”. In short, those states that will somehow inform their citizens about the risks associated with relying on “clandestine” trips organised by smugglers and human traffickers will be rewarded.