Just before Italy's parliament broke for the summer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and the Minister of Interior Matteo Piantedosi set out a roadmap for the new security package which will be presented at the Council of Ministers in September.

The new package is designed to strengthen the numbers and powers of security forces when dealing with unregistered migrants. Italy hopes to tighten up the rules surrounding expulsions for those who don't qualify for asylum in the country and have been ordered to leave. There will also be harsher penalties for anyone committing violent actions against members of the security forces.

Interior Minister Piantedosi announced a series of initiatives he would present in one of the first Council of Ministers meetings after the summer break. "We are already at work to present a package of laws to strengthen the measures at the disposal of the security forces to fight the most recurring criminal actions and the lack of security for our citizens," said the Minister.

During the meeting held on Monday (August 7) at Palazzo Chigi (the seat of the Italian government) Meloni and Piantedosi set out the basis and issues in the security package on which the Ministry will work over the coming weeks.

More staff

The government aims to hire more police personnel to guarantee "an increased presence of police agents on the streets." More funding will also be offered for equipment and training of local police forces.

The security package will also address the problem of so-called "baby gangs" gangs of youths and the violence they sometimes perpetrate, particularly in the country's big cities.

But one of the main tenets of the security package is expected to surround the issue of expelling migrants who arrive without papers and do not qualify for asylum. Anyone in this category with a record of violent behavior is expected to be fast-tracked for expulsion.

More repatriation centers

The Ministry of the Interior also helps to increase the numbers of Repatriation Centers (CPR) across Italy. Often these are based near airports, so that those detained within them can be flown out as soon as the orders are approved. Anyone described as "socially dangerous" should be repatriated more quickly if the new plans come into effect.

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"The Premier and the Minister feel the need to present a security package to speed up the removal of dangerous and violent subjects", explained the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Nicola Molteni.

The intention, he added, is to "have simplified procedures that will allow subjects with a significant criminal record or serious psychiatric conditions not to represent a danger in Italy."

The government is hoping to effect a change in the law that will allow for immediate removal from a CPR. Currently some inmates are held there for months if not longer.

"The government is moving in the right direction", commented the Secretary of the Police Union (Coisp), Domenico Pianese, warning that "there is also a need to intervene [in the field of] penal law to avoid that these subjects who are socially dangerous and who commit repeated crimes, can benefit from reduced sentences or mitigating circumstances that would undermine the work of the security forces."