The Italian Interior Ministry has proposed new rules to cut the costs of migrant reception, including shared cafeterias for migrants and for the migrants to clean their own lodgings.
Shared cafeterias, only one network of services for reception facilities in a specific area and migrants' being responsible for cleaning ''after being provided with specific materials'' are all parts of an Italian interior ministry directive aiming to cut costs. The directive redesigns the reception system and will affect both large centers and smaller facilities that are part of the Italy's Protection System for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (SPRAR).
Downscaling of services
The high number of asylum seekers, who stay in the facilities while waiting for their requests to be processed - which can take up to two years with ''significant burden on taxpayers'' - requires a ''revision'' of the system, according to the directive. The revision will focus on ''rationalization'' and ''differentiation'' of services in part to respond, the ministry underscored, the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, which ''criticized the 'indistinct right to stay' in the centers, given even to those without a right to it''. This is why the first intervention focuses on ''integrated reception'', meaning that it must be given only to migrants in second level facilities who have been ''granted a form of protection.'' ''Assistance services'' will then be reassessed in consideration of the fact that most asylum seekers are hosted in small and medium-sized facilities and not large centers.
However, ''decent living conditions able to ensure subsistence and protection of health'' will continue to be provided.
"Basic services"
The directive names the ''basic services'' that must be ensured ''as part of a fair and transparent administrative management'', including ''lodgings, food, healthcare and assistance for daily expenditures,'' depending on the size of the facilities.
Other examples included: ''the providing of meals can be ensured through a system of cafeterias in collective centers'' in the case of large centers, or ''through the supply of foodstuffs if they are placed in apartments''. Migrants will have to do their own cleaning in the apartments, while there will be special contacts for the centers.