The Italian Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) said it found "illegitimate practices" with regards to stay permits for refugees and asylum seekers at police headquarters in Bologna. It said it also found anomalies in wait times for asylum requests. It is calling on authorities to respect Italian laws governing these areas.
The Italian Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) sent a letter to Bologna police headquarters citing "illegitimate practices with regard to asylum seekers and those with international protection and humanitarian protection status".
It cited in particular the practices for stay permits and wait times for submitting an asylum request.
"Illegitimate operation" at police headquarters
ASGI said the Bologna police headquarters is running an "illegitimate operation" above all with regard to issuing and renewing stay permits for asylum seekers or for foreign citizens seeking international or humanitarian protection who are not being hosted in the government reception system. According to ASGI, administrative employees "request documents relative to housing, which aren't required by any law, exacerbating and in some cases impeding the issuing of stay permits to applicants".
Based on the law, local authorities can't "violate the law by subjecting the issuing or renewal of stay permits to the presentation of a statement of hosting or registered lease contract, which are documents that aren't required by the aforementioned legislative decree".
"Illegitimate" wait times
ASGI also cited that at the Bologna police headquarters there are "illegitimate wait times to obtain an appointment to submit an asylum application or for the renewal of a stay permit for an asylum request". The authorities there set "appointments for presenting international protection requests or asylum-seeker stay permit renewals several months after the request, without issuing any receipt to the applicant". ASGI said this practice "in addition to lengthening already long wait times for the asylum procedure, puts applicants in an irregular legal situation on Italian soil, making them susceptible to expulsion procedures".
In the letter to the police headquarters, ASGI said that "the illegitimacy of the operation of this questura is evident" and that the questura denies asylum seekers and refugees the ability to "exercise a right, that is, the issuing of a stay permit, an indispensable prerequisite for the exercise of essential rights such as the right to healthcare, work, housing".