NO MORE MR. NICE GUY (II): INEFFECTIVE ITALIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ROME 000439 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2014 TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF IT SUBJECT: NO MORE MR. NICE GUY (II): INEFFECTIVE ITALIAN RESPONSE TO IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES REF: A. ROME 205 ¶B. MILAN 80 ROME 00000439 001.2 OF 004 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Elizabeth L. Dibble for reasons 1.4 (b ) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) This is the second in a series of three reporting cables on immigration in Italy. This first reporting cable described the current situation. This second cable reports on the government's reaction to the immigration challenge. The third examines concerns about the limitations of the government's approach and previews the outlook for the future. ¶2. (SBU) In addition to Italy's four million immigrants, there are an estimated 650,000 irregular immigrants, although the number is likely higher. Given Italy's large volume of tourist traffic and its participation in the borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreeement, the majority of irregular immigrants arrive with a tourist visa and overstay. To try to stem the steady flow of irregular immigrants, the Berlusconi government has launched a vigorous diplomatic and domestic campaign focused on the security aspects of the problem. Government Reaction: Diplomacy -------------- ¶3. (C) The Maghreb. The Berlusconi government has negotiated new or reinvigorated bilateral repatriation agreements with source countries. The keystone was the Italy-Libya Friendship Treaty (ref a),which seeks to recast Italy's relationship with its former colony and features a requirement for Libya to take action to limit irregular immigration to Italy, including joint patrols with the Italian navy, in exchange for an increase in student visas and other assistance. Some observers attribute the continuous flows of boat migrants from Libya to Lampedusa this spring to the migrants' apprehension that Libya will soon clamp down to fulfill its treaty obligations. Among the migrants traveling through Libya to Lampedusa in 2008 were more than 7,000 Tunisians. In response, Italy updated a 1998 exchange of notes with Tunisia related to re-admission and the fight against irregular immigration. But, according to Italian Interior ministry officials, due to domestic security concerns, Tunisia has insisted on imp lementing the readmission of its citizens in limited batches, aggravating the overcrowding problem in Lampedusa. ¶4. (C) Other Bilateral Agreements. Interior Ministry planning official Vincenzo Decreto told us that Italy has signed 64 bilateral agreements with 52 countries related to cooperation on immigration, trafficking in persons, and crime. Decreto also reported that Italy has initiated police exchanges and police training with a number of source countries, including Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal, and Albania. With its EU partners, Italy conducts joint patrols and exchanges with Spain, France, Greece, Romania, and Slovenia. To encourage cooperation from source countries, Italy offers preferential visa quotas to those governments that agree to repatriate their citizens who have traveled to Italy illegally. For example, Decreto said that Tunisia and Egypt, two governments that are cooperating with Italy on repatriations, were awarded 150,000 visas this year. Border Police chief Rodolfo Ronconi confirmed that the government is using the award of work permits, including seasonal permits, to discourage irregular immigration. The GOI has also offered foreign assistance to win support for repatriation, including in Morocco and Nigeria. The IOM told us, however, that it fears Italy's aggressive campaign of repatriation under these bilateral readmission agreements is skirting Italy's obligations under international law to properly screen asylum seekers from economic migrants. ¶5. (SBU) Multilateral agreements. Italy is also working multilaterally to enlist support. In January, Italy, Greece, ROME 00000439 002.2 OF 004 Cyprus and Malta signed a joint document calling on the EU to take "urgent action" with regard to burden-sharing in response to the influx of illegal immigration from Africa and the Middle East, including the need for readmission agreements with Morocco, Algeria, and Turkey, as well as other countries. In February, the EU offered Libya a support package of 20 million euros to strengthen Libya's border control through border patrols and coastal radar. Keying off of Italy's G8 Presidency this year, the Ministry of Interior is hosting a "PanMediterranean Conference" in Rome April 15-17, "with a view to enhancing operative cooperation among the countries most affected by illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings as well as to identify concrete and shared solutions with the various states involved directly or indirectly." The Italians have invited the Chiefs of Police from 72 countries, as well as representatives from international organizations such as the EU, Interpol, and FRONTEX. ¶6. (C) Limited results. Despite this flurry of activity, nearly every official we met from the Interior Ministry is skeptical that source countries, particularly Libya, will take concrete action, and are frustrated by what they see as the EU's failure to recognize that European countries bordering the Mediterranean constitute a "port to Europe." The head of Italy's Border Police (and former Interpol director) Ronconi told us that he believed that states such as Finland "can't imagine" the challenge of illegal immigration faced by countries such as Italy. He argued the EU lacks a common strategy and operational policy to combat the problem. Although he has traveled to Libya for consultations on border control, he speculated that Libya's current chairmanship of the African Union would prevent Libya from taking action to stop its "African brothers" from transiting Libya to Italy. Other government officials have pointed out that previous Italian-Libyan agreements on immigration have brought limited results. Several of our contacts, both in the Interior Ministry and the NGO community, also question the wisdom of the principle of "unlimited" movement of EU citizens. Government Action: Internal Crackdown -------------- ¶7. (C) Slamming the Door. Interior Minister Maroni has spoken plainly of his intent to be "mean to illegal immigrants." In January, he decided that irregular immigrants arriving by boat in Lampedusa would henceforth be detained up to the EU maximum of 18 months while the Italians authorities sought to identify their citizenship and conduct repatriations. Current Italian law authorizes detention of illegal migrants up to 60 days, although an additional 30 day extension is possible. Previously, irregular immigrants arriving in Lampedusa were temporarily detained at a "welcome" center on the island where the international community helped the Italian government screen for asylum. In practice, most were released within weeks, including those subject to expulsion orders, typically never executed. The island's 7,000 resident opposed the measure, fearing it would turn Lampedusa into "GITMO," and those detained have rioted in protest, frustrated that the few thousand dollars they paid to traffickers to arrive in Italy would be in vain. On February 18, around 100 Tunisians protesting expulsion orders clashed with police and set fire to the detention center, damaging the facility and severely reducing its capacity. Senator Angela Maraventano, who is from Lampedusa and a member of the anti-immigration Northern League political party, told us that by extending detention and speaking harshly, Maroni is seeking to send a "strong message" and thereby deter would-be immigrants and traffickers. In response to the protests, she noted acidly that there is little interest in providing the residents of Lampedusa with services such as a hospital and schools, but that the international community is ready to offer a "sea of cash" to the illegal immigrants who land there. 8 (SBU) Security Law. Maroni also submitted to the ROME 00000439 003.2 OF 004 Parliament a draft "security law," which included the following tough measures: making irregular immigration a crime subject to a fine of up to 10,000 euros; providing for up to four years' imprisonment for irregular migrants who fail to comply with an expulsion order; requiring doctors to report patients who are irregular migrants; extending the detention period of irregular migrants from 90 days to the EU maximum standard of 18 months; delaying citizenship for foreign spouses of Italian citizens for at least two years; and financing the establishment of ten new "centers of identification and expulsion." The measure was approved by the Senate on February 5 and is now under consideration by the Chamber of Deputies. Tougher controls on irregular immigrants enjoy broad support, but the Northern League overplayed its hand with this bill, and on April 8 members of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party successfully demanded that the two most most extreme measures -- including that doctors report patients who are irregular immigrants and lengthening the period in which immigrants can be detained - be excised. There is a separate outstanding legislative proposal to limit the number of foreign students in Italian schools. ¶9. (C) Other measures. The Interior Ministry is also taking steps to apprehend those trafficking in illegal immigrants. In March, the police arrested 13 people accused of trafficking persons from North Africa to Italy. In a controversial move, the Interior Ministry is seeking to authorize community watchgroups ("ronde"),to inform the police about illegal immigrants. Border Police chief Ronconi told us the MOI seeks to train these watchgroups to ensure they understand their rightQQN#?? ,L|wPffQTQQpositive correlation between the increasing size of the immigrant population and an increase in crime occurred in the incidence of robbery. In a review of 2005 criminal data, the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) found that the incidence of criminal charges against foreigners, involving both regular and irregular immigrants, had increased from 17.4 to 23.7 percent. NGO activists argue, however, that the police profile foreigners and many foreigners are charged with offenses related to their irregular status. Recently, the Italian press has sensationalized stories about the alleged rape of Italian women by Romanians, but in fact the percentage of rapes in Italy conducted by a person unknown to the victim, such as a foreigner, is only 3.4 percent. Overall, crime rates in Italy's major cities Rome, Milan and Naples significantly decreased in 2008, although this decrease was a partial readjustment following a 2006 "amnesty" of prisoners that led to a spike in crime in 2007. Antigone, an Italian NGO that works with prisoners, told us that the total Italian prison population numbers 55,000 persons, and approximately one-third are immigrants, a ratio that has been constant. Michele del Prete, a prosecutor handling anti-Mafia and anti-terrorism cases in Naples, told us irregular immigrants, including many Chinese, are involved with the Mafia in criminal activity such as smuggling persons and weapons, drugs, prostitution, and counterfeiting. Del Prete also believes it is reasonable to assume that terrorists may avail themselves of these existing criminal networks. Government rhetoric and the press selectively focus on these links, feeding a public perception of danger. ¶11. (C) Probing Criminal and Terrorist Links. Interior Ministry planning official Decreto told us that the government has recorded an increase in crimes committed by Romanians, Albanians, Moroccans, Chinese, and Ukrainians. ROME 00000439 004.2 OF 004 But he acknowledged that in many instances such crimes were "an effect of illegality," and underscored that the rate of criminal activity among legal foreign immigrants was equivalent or less than the rate of criminal activity among Italians. On the other hand, he said those immigrants expelled by the Interior Ministry on grounds of terrorism were legal residents. Border police chief Ronconi told us the Interior Ministry is concerned about the role of immigrants in criminal activity as well as the risk of links between immigrants and Islamic terrorism, a risk he described as magnified by the Italian police's lack of cultural understanding about Islam. Interior Ministry officials responsible for police training have told us they recognize they need to improve police awareness of Islam so they can be more effective when working in Muslim communities. ¶12. (SBU) Political Mileage. Center-right and center-left Italian governments consistently have shown little courage in dealing with immigration to Italy, by failing to explain the benefits of legal immigration or to develop a comprehensive policy to combat irregular immigration. Although immigrant labor is in demand in northern Italy, the fact that so many immigrants are concentrated in the north has sparked a backlash. In the runup to the European Parliament elections in June, the Northern League (LN) has stoked this backlash, and seeks to benefit from it. LN contacts tell us that the party should do very well in June, and it appears likely that the party will set down new roots further south than ever before -- in Abruzzo and Lazio. Although Berlusconi's People of Liberty party has been hesitant about appearing to agree with the harshest anti-immigrant rhetoric, it also has made security, a platform linked to immigration, a key theme of its government. Even more progressive politicians champion a relatively restricted integration model and cite cultural differences (such as a willingness to work on Sundays and a different diet) as barriers to effective immigration. The center-left has never used the same anti-immigrant tones as the center right, but neither has it offered a strong alternative model with which the government could engage with immigrants. Over the past year, the center-left has highlighted the government's missteps, such as when Parliament recently rejected parts of the security law, but it has not offered a different concept of how to deal with immigration, something that the public perceives as a pressing issue. DIBBLE