First time since 2017: the data that nail the left of the reception

2022 was one of the most difficult years on the migration front. With the countdown to the new year over, the Keep them in mind made public all the various data relating to the landings of migrants and irregular arrivals on Italian territory in the last 12 months.

The picture that has emerged is worrying not only for 2022, but also for 2023 and for the medium and long term: in fact, the threshold of one hundred thousand disembarks has been exceeded and without reversing the trend, the situation could take a turn for the worse in the coming months as well. The photograph taken by the Viminale is nothing more than the certification of a disastrous legacy left by the former minister Luciana Lamorgese. At the helm of the ministry in the last two governments and chosen after the agreement between M5S and Pd in ​​October 2019, his policy dedicated to waiting for a never arrived European solidarity has produced a difficult situation to manage. To which his successor, i.e. the current minister, is now called to put his hand Matteo Piantedosi.

The numbers of the Interior Ministry

From 1 January to 31 December 2022, 104,061 migrants arrived in Italy. This is the first useful data for tracing the situation photographed by the Ministry of the Interior. The threshold of one hundred thousand landed in a year had not been exceeded since 2017.

In that year, in particular, 119,369 irregularly landed migrants were counted. In 2016 it was even worse, with 181,436 people arriving on our coasts. Numbers of the most critical two-year period in terms of landings, with data then reduced only starting from 2018. That is, the year of the handover to the Viminale between Marco Minnitiproponent of the code of conduct of NGO he was born in memorandum with LibyaAnd Matthew Salvinileader of the League which has historically made immigration its battle horse.

In that 2018, the number of people landed fell to 23,370, to then reach a minimum in 2019 with 11,471 migrants arriving in Italy. Since then there has been a gradual increase in data, which however has always remained far from the critical threshold of one hundred thousand. In particular, in 2020, the year of the most acute phase of the pandemic34,154 landed migrants were counted, while in 2021 the figure reached 67,034.

Lamorgese disaster

If it is true that the factors affecting the increase in landings cannot be sought only internally, it is equally true however that the fact that this increase coincided with the start of the Giallorossi political season cannot appear merely by chance. In September 2019, in fact, the government was sworn in Count IIresult of the compromise between M5S And Democratic party. It was she who took the reins of the situation at the Interior Ministry Luciana Lamorgeselater confirmed in the Draghi government.

While Minniti and Salvini, albeit starting from two different political visions, have nevertheless tried to govern the migratory phenomenon, Lamorgese instead limited himself to asking solidarity to Europe. A solidarity that never arrived, while landings have returned to increase and the management of immigration has at the same time been left at the mercy of events. Emblematic in this sense are the relations with the world of NGO. Minniti drafted the first self-regulatory code, Salvini engaged them in a real tug of war, Luciana Lamorgese instead received the representatives of the organizations several times at the Interior Ministry.

Politics aimed at waiting for more decisive European policies on redistribution of migrants has proved to be extremely unsuccessful, also in the light of the latest data. The redistribution never came, except for almost negligible sums. Just in September 2019 it was presented as “historic” the Malta Agreement on European solidarity, but that document was nothing more than a collection of good intentions that never became real.

The growth of landings from 2020 onwards, which has now reached the psychological threshold of one hundred thousand arrivals in twelve months, is much more than a simple alarm bell. On the contrary, it is the certification of the failure of a political line and, at the same time, a precise warning given to the new legislature: if we do not change pace, in 2023 the data could be even worse.

Piantedosi’s countermoves

It is above all for this reason that the new government, which took office last October, immediately changed its political line. First of all with the NGOs. Already in November, Rome waited in some cases before giving the go-ahead for the so-called humanitarian ships to disembark. On one occasion a ship, namely the Ocean Viking, reached the France triggering the notorious diplomatic incident with Paris.

At the end of 2022, when the dramatic data disclosed on January 1 by the Viminale were now consolidated, the government decided to implement a first organic intervention with the new safety decree. The regulation contains a provision aimed at regulating the activity of NGOs. In particular, activists from now on must notify the state authorities immediately after a sea rescue and immediately head to the port assigned by Rome. One way to avoid that “shuttle” with Tripolitania, repeatedly denounced by Minister Piantedosi in recent weeks.

The sense of the decree appears clear: even if the NGOs accounted for 14% of the landings, their constant presence at sea for Giorgia Meloni’s executive appears as a call for new departures from Libya. That is, it is the so-called “pull factor“, which the Frontex agency also mentioned in its report dated May 2021.

Where did the migrants landed in Italy in 2022 depart from?

The number of unaccompanied minors, a particularly critical and vulnerable band and for which specific reception measures are needed. In 2021, 10,053 unaccompanied minors had arrived in Italy, in 2022 the figure rose to 12,687.

The figures relating to the Nationality of those who landed in the year just said goodbye. In the last decade it has almost always been the Tunisians who have led this special ranking, however they were ousted in 2022 by the Egyptians.

fromEgypt in fact 20,509 people arrived, from Tunisia 18.129. A significant fact at the political level: both Cairo and Tunis are in fact countries with which Italy has good relations and whose internal situation appears, in relation to its North African neighbours, more stable. Rome can therefore bring these figures to diplomatic tables and ask the governments involved for important countermeasures to curb the exodus towards our country.