A June 27 Memorandum of Understanding signed by Italy will enable refugees selected abroad to arrive in the country through work corridors especially designed for refugees, UNHCR announced in a statement.

The agreement was signed by the UN agency and Italy's Interior, Foreign, and Labor ministries, as well as Diaconia Valdese (the synod for the Waldesian and Methodist churches in Italy, which is one of the partners of the humanitarian corridors), and the NGOs Talent Beyond Boundaries and Pathways International. The latter is a Canadian NGO helping to provide safe and legal pathways for refugees.

Talent Beyond Boundaries says that it is working in 12 countries so far to establish talent visa programs. On their website, the NGO says that it has helped over 2,000 refugees to "secure a migration solution through a displacement talent visa program."

The work corridors are an initiative that provides for the selection and training of skilled refugees in third countries in specific professional sectors for their legal entrance onto the Italian labor market.

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Four projects initiated with 70 refugees

So far, four projects have been started involving 70 refugees living in Colombia, Egypt, Uganda, and Jordan that will be inserted into the airport, shipbuilding, IT, and goldsmithing sectors on their arrival in Italy, UNHCR noted in a statement.

These projects were designed to be extended to other economic sectors and geographical contexts in the coming years, aiming to significantly increase opportunities for people fleeing and Italian businesses, it added.

The UN agency noted in the Italian statement that Italy "continues to be one of the first countries in the world to develop a legal entrance channel for the work sector, both through establishing specific entrance quotas inside of the ordinary annual plan and through" quotas that do not fall within the annual plan.

The latter, it added, "enables Italian businesses to select and hire refugees after their training abroad, helping to build an integration and solidarity model that valorises refugee skills and meets the demand for personnel within Italian businesses."

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Italy 'opening a new path' says UNHCR

In commenting on the MoU, UNHCR representative to Italy, the Holy See and San Marino Chiara Cardoletti said that, "at a time of global crisis, concrete and brave choices are needed for refugees. Work corridors bring together protection and possibility, centering the individual and their potential. Italy is opening a new path in which institutions, businesses, and civil society walk alongside one another."

The UNHCR representative noted that the initiative is part of program lines contained within the Global Compact on Refugees and underscored the "importance of global collaboration to enable refugees to use their skills for the general good, creating a better future both for themselves and for the communities welcoming them."

According to the statement, 122 million people in the world have been forced to flee due to wars and violence. Of them, 73 percent are hosted in low or mid-level income countries where it can prove impossible to find opportunities to build their future, leading them to undertake dangerous journeys often at the hands of traffickers.