Amnesty: What does it mean?

• In the relaunch decree, it entails a six-month temporary stay permit intended to allow you to work with a regular contract. If by the end of your six-months you have a contract from your employer, you can apply to convert the temporary permit into a longer-term work permit

• This amnesty comes as part of a whole "relaunch decree" to try and help the Italian economy and all Italians, including those employed "illegally," i.e. working on the so-called "black market economy," without proper work contracts. So it is not just to help undocumented migrants.

• It is about "principles," said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Agricultural Minister Teresa Bellanova.

• The amnesty is intended to:
  
  • end illegal work contracts
  • end the conditions of slave labor
  • give rights and dignity back to workers

These principles are so important to the agriculture minister Teresa Bellanova, who has spent her career as a union member fighting for workers' rights, since she once worked in the fields of southern Italy as a 15-year-old girl, that she broke down in tears when she announced the amnesty would be part of the relaunch package. She posted on Twitter, "It's true, I cried."

• Minister Bellanova said that the amnesty, would help make "those invisible less so."
• She said it would allow people access "to an identity and to dignity."
• She said it showed that the "state was stronger than the mafia and than slave labor."

Who is eligible to apply?
Those who have been working in certain sectors with illegal or non-existent work contracts. Sectors include:

• Agriculture
• Fisheries
• Animal breeding
• Livestock
• Domestic work sectors (house maids, carers for the elderly or those with disabilities, childminders)

How many are eligible to apply?

• Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte refused to be drawn on how many people exactly would be eligible to apply.

• In a press conference he said it "wasn’t about numbers but about principles." (See above)

• Some estimates indicate there are 600,000 undocumented migrants in Italy but Prime Minister Conte said the decree covered numbers "far less than those estimates."

• According to Italy's financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore about 212,000 workers could be eligible to be regularized by their employers and about 52,000 should be able to apply to regularize themselves.

Requirements

• Those migrants eligible to apply must have arrived in Italy before March 8, 2020 and have been documented with a photo ID process on arrival. You SHOULD NOT have left Italian territory since your arrival.
• If your residence permit (permesso di soggiorno) expired since October 31, 2019 you can also apply.

How to apply?

• Employers can apply on behalf of their workers and pay a sum of €400 flat rate to request the legalization of their employee, either foreign or Italian.

• Those whose stay permit expired after October 31, 2019 can also apply for themselves. They would be required to pay a flat rate of €160.

• If you want to apply yourself you need to go to a police station (Questura) and file a request between June 1 and July 15, 2020.

• You need to demonstrate that you have already been working in one of the designated sectors (i.e. in agriculture or as a domestic worker.)

• If you obtain an employment contract from your employer within the six-months temporary permit you can convert it into a work permit.

Who is not eligible?

• Those who have been found guilty of crimes, such as drugs, clandestine migration or are considered a threat to public security.

• Employers who have been found to have exploited their workers, or aided and abetted clandestine migration or recruitment for labor exploitation or prostitution would also be excluded.

If you qualify:

• The amnesty will then suspend any legal proceedings relating to financial, tax affairs or illegal entrance or stay on national territory. Giving you the right to become a fully documented citizen eventually.

Cost:

• Nothing was announced specifically in the press conference about how much would be put aside to pay for the amnesty.

• The Italian news agency ANSA estimated that the amnesty could cost the Italian state about €91,56 million.

• They said the Interior Minister had set aside about €75,11 million for it and that about €63,3 million would be paid out in 2020.

• For those who support it, it will bring more money eventually into the Italian state through taxes as when workers have contracts and are regularized then they have to pay taxes and contributions to the state.