Italy work visa scheme abused by organized crime groups — PM
‘Only a minimal percentage of those who obtained a work visa actually signed an employment contract’
Daily Tribune‘Only a minimal percentage of those who obtained a work visa actually signed an employment contract’
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
ROME (AFP) — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday announced plans to reform Italy’s visa system for non-European Union (EU) workers, saying it was being exploited by organized crime groups to smuggle in illegal migrants.
Instead, the government would work towards a system where arrivals will need an employment contract, she told a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from her office.
“We are faced with a mechanism of fraud and circumvention of regular entry systems — with the heavy interference of organized crime — which we must stop and correct,” she said.
Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made the announcement just days before European Parliament elections.
Since taking office in October 2022, she has introduced measures to try to reduce irregular migration into Italy while expanding the number of legal work visas in response to business demand.
But she said analysis of the current system had uncovered “alarming” data.
In some regions, particularly Campania in the south, the number of applications for visas was “totally disproportionate” to the number of potential employers.
And “only a minimal percentage” of those who obtained a work visa actually signed an employment contract, she said.
This figure was three percent in Campania, from where 157,000 visa applications were made for seasonal work last year, more than half the total of 282,000.
“Regular immigrant flows for work reasons are used as another channel for irregular migration,” she said.
The largest proportion of non-EU workers who had entered Italy in recent years were from Bangladesh, she said.
