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

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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,

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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

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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