Italy's 'flows decrees' regulating migration are being used ever more for labor exploitation, thereby fostering human trafficking, according to the IDOS Study and Research Centre's 2025 immigration statistics dossier.

One chapter in the dossier based on the 2024 report by Italy's anti-trafficking hotline shows that human trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is falling, while that of male migrants for undocumented work -- often in conditions akin to slavery -- is increasing.

The dossier will be presented at the national level on November 4 at Rome's Nuovo Teatro Orione at 10:30 am.

Italy's 'flows decrees' are the mechanism through which the government establishes every year how many non-EU foreign nationals are allowed to enter Italy for work reasons.

For several years, requests from employers and the files connected with the requests have been managed through an online system in connection with the interior ministry.

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Labor exploitation outpaces trafficking for sexual exploitation

Active since the year 2000 to collect reports and complaints, the Italian hotline (800 290 290) is one of the top ways Italy has been combating human trafficking and severe exploitation.

The dossier analyses the trend of the cases activated following an initial contact with the hotline between 2014 and 2024, with over 800 on average every year.

The figures show a decrease in cases involving women and minors (-9.8 percent and -63.6 percent) and the doubling of cases involving adult males.

At the overall level, over a period of 11 years, sexual exploitation reported to the hotline dropped from accounting for 50 percent to 24 percent, while ones involving labor exploitation rose to 38.2 percent of the cases undertaken following contact with the hotline.

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2024 was 'year of deception'

The annual report of the hotline called 2024 "the year of deception" on the basis of monitoring of reports on fraud linked to the 'flows decrees'.

In the second half of the year, the hotline found a constant presence of intermediaries who required payment to start the procedure for foreign workers who want to come to Italy -- from the request to the visa -- only to then disappear alongside those claiming to be employers.

Thus, in the second half of the year alone, 139 potential migrant workers from Tunisia, Morocco, India, and Egypt ended up without legal work and vulnerable to exploitation.

This number represents, the report noted, only a small part of a phenomenon that various observers say is very widespread.

In the same period, the cases for labor exploitation taken on by the hotline rose to 80 percent, compared with 16 percent for sexual exploitation.

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