In late 2024, Italy's right-wing coalition government passed a decree declaring a list of 19 countries 'safe'. Those countries were listed as: Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Peru, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia.

The decree was partly aimed at bolstering the mechanisms that would allow the Italian government to send non-vulnerable migrants rescued in international waters by the Italian coast guard to have their asylum claims processed in specially-built centers in Albania.

The first three small groups of migrants to be sent by Italy to the Albanian centers came originally from countries like Bangladesh and Egypt that appeared on this new list of countries considered 'safe.'

Safe or not?

However, even the new list didn't convince Italian judges tasked with allowing the asylum assessment in Albania to go ahead. Because of an earlier ruling by a European court, which indicated that even if most of a country could be considered safe, if parts of it were not, or if some groups or individuals might not in danger in that country, then the whole country could not be considered unilaterally 'safe.'

Now, according to a recent report by two organizations the NGO ActionAid and the Openpolis foundation in Italy, nearly 40 percent of migrants hosted in Italy's (SAI) reception and integration system centers at the end of 2023 actually hailed from countries now listed as 'safe' under that decree.

This finding indicates that just a year before the decree was passed, the Italian authorities were offering some form of protection or assessing asylum claims coming from countries they later declared to be 'safe.'. Most of those housed in SAI centers hold some form of protection status, or are considered to be eligible for it, explains Europe's Asylum Infomation Database AIDA.

Read Also'Migrant centers in Albania are illegitimate', says NGO report

Collapse of the hosting system?

According to the report, a recorded 12,169 people who were hosted within the SAI system for migrants at the end of 2023 hailed from countries listed as 'safe' under the Italian government's new measures passed in 2024.

The report stated that "in 2023 the possibility of holding asylum seekers was introduced through accelerated border procedures", as part of a plan that is similar to the government's plan to process asylum requests at Italian-run centers in Albania.

"The majority of asylum applications filed by people who hail from countries considered 'safe' is rejected, although this is not always the case", found the study. It noted that at the end of 2023 nearly 40 percent of migrants staying at an SAI center hailed from one of the 19 countries listed as safe by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government.

"These are not wholly safe territories," read the study and the countries are not safe "for everybody." Accelerated border procedures are not valid for minors and vulnerable people, including women, but nevertheless, the report also found that an estimated 5,400 men coming from 'safe' countries were also being hosted within the SAI system, the report estimated.

Read AlsoHas Italy's Albania migrant deal completely failed?

Situation remains 'alarming'

The study also found that the number of migrants staying at centers for unaccompanied minors (MSNA) in 2023 had grown by 63.9 percent. They included 1,773 minors (26 percent of all those hosted by the system), "a significant number considering that the figure in 2020 was of just 48 minors (1.5 percent of all the migrants hosted).

In 2023, there were 77 public tenders for CAS centers hosting minors compared to 48 in the first eight months of 2024. Moreover, 740 minors over the age of 16 were staying at centers for adults in 2023.

At the end of August 2024, 284 unaccompanied minors were hosted in government-run facilities designed for adults. However, between January and August 2024, an average 144 places for unaccompanied minors remained open, according to the study.

"The situation for minors is alarming and the interior ministry's position is concerning," said Fabrizio Coreso, a migration expert at ActionAid.

"The interior ministry avoids taking specific responsibility and does not actually guarantee dignified hosting conditions for minors," he added.

Read AlsoOne year on, has Italy's Albania migrant deal failed?

Increasing number of women staying at SAI centers for long periods

The survey also found that an increasing number of women are staying at SAI centers for long periods of time.

Between 2014 and 2023, women in SAI centers increased five-fold while the presence of men did not even double, the report found.

Moreover, it noted that the trend is progressing with legislation approved in 2023, defining female asylum seekers as "vulnerable," which implies they should stay at a SAI center.

ActionAid said this could lead to an increasing population of women in centers that will be unable to respond to their actual needs.

ActionAid and Openpolis also reported that they found it difficult to obtain official figures: after winning a case in the TAR regional administrative court in 2020 and the Council of State in 2022, the two organizations will be forced to head back to court on March 19 to obtain more information.