ROME: Italy’s populist government is making it harder for migrants to be approved for humanitarian protection.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters that the government at a Cabinet meeting Monday approved a decree setting tighter criteria for such protection, which accords a status less than full asylum.
Humanitarian protection will only be granted for victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities or those needing medical care as well as to those who performed “deeds of particular civic value,” an apparent reference to heroism.
He said asylum-request evaluations will be suspended for those deemed “socially dangerous” or convicted of crime, even before court appeals run out. Salvini insisted: “We’re not harming any fundamental rights.”
The decree also calls for reduced daily pocket money for asylum-seekers.
