Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi met with the mayors of Italian metropolitan cities in Rome last Thursday (September 7) to discuss limiting the impact on municipalities of a high number of migrants.

After a record number of landings of migrants in Italy this (northern hemisphere) summer, and the difficulties voiced by mayors in finding space to host them across their territory, the government is working to ease the pressure, Piantedosi said.

"It is important to deal together with the current situation, sharing a common method," the interior minister said during the gathering attended by Interior Undersecretary Nicola Molteni, the president of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), Antonio Decaro, mayors and prefects of Italy's metropolitan cities.

ANCI asks for more places

Representatives of municipalities, for their part, asked the central government to carry out the processes of identification, health care checks and inquiries over the presence of relatives in the country in initial reception centers, which are under the jurisdiction of the interior ministry, rather than in facilities where migrants are subsequently placed that belong to the SAI network (System of hosting and integration), which involves over 1,800 municipalities.

This would enable migrants to be better distributed across the SAI network, according to municipalities. Decaro also called for the number of places to be increased.

ANCI has complained that, if such measures are not implemented, municipalities will be unable to guarantee appropriate care for unaccompanied minors, who currently number more than 21,000 (mostly males aged 17, 16 and 15) with only 6,207 authorized places available for them.

This leads to the "concrete risk that the cost of assisting all the others will directly fall on municipal budgets," Decaro warned.

Piantedosi pledged to "quickly evaluate the proposals."

Lowering the age of minors in the SAI network

Meanwhile, the government is considering lowering the age under which a migrant is considered a candidate for the SAI system. The idea would be to evaluate the potential access of candidates of up to 15 years of age, while 16- and 17-year-olds would be managed by ordinary hosting networks, along with all adult migrants.

On this front, a new decree-law could introduce stricter regulations on medical controls to evaluate the age of newly-arrived migrants who declare that they are minors, including wrist X-rays and other physical examinations.

Current legislation provides for examinations which are considered less invasive, stating that, in case of doubt, a person should be considered a minor.

The security decree, which is currently under discussion, will also enable more expulsions of irregular migrants with a criminal profile, including violent offenders, possibly granting more powers to local authorities and police chiefs.

Moreover, faster procedures could be implemented to set up centers hosting irregular migrants who have received an expulsion order.