- Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to amend a draft security law following widespread opposition to a controversial ‘repatriation bonus scheme’ for asylum lawyers.
- Participants in a far-right rally have repeated calls for the “remigration” of people out of Europe.
- An Italian employment agency has signed an agreement with two agencies in Tunisia to facilitate labour migration for young Tunisians.
- A new NGO report has highlighted the criminalisation in Italy of people who act in solidarity with people on the move.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to amend a draft security law following widespread opposition to a controversial “repatriation bonus scheme” for asylum lawyers. The measure, which was included in draft legislation that is currently awaiting parliamentary approval, foresees estimated payments to lawyers of over €600 for each asylum applicant that they represent who agrees to voluntary repatriation. Meloni has offered to introduce changes to the plan via a separate piece of legislation if the ‘Security Decree’ is approved. She is under pressure as the decree needs to be adopted by MPs by 25 April or else lapse and any amendments to it would also require approval from the Senate (upper house of parliament). The Union of Italian Criminal Chambers, which represents criminal lawyers, has described the measure as “incompatible with the Constitution and the most basic principles of legal ethics” as it would, in their view, make defence lawyers “an instrument of government remigration policies”. Elsewhere, Dario Belluccio from ECRE member organisation the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) said that the proposed scheme “undermines legal autonomy, creating a clear conflict of interest, pushing lawyers to favour the wishes of the public administration rather than the protection of their clients” and “exposes vulnerable individuals, such as victims of trafficking or potential refugees who could be pushed into unsafe repatriations by financial incentives, to risk”. Belluccio also denounced the measure for appearing to “respond precisely to the concept of ‘remigration’ promoted by the far right” and for being based on what he described as a “completely flawed political vision of the migration phenomenon, based on repression and proven ineffective”.
The issue of “remigration” also featured at a recent far-right rally in Milan. Participants in the event, which was organised by the Patriots for Europe Group in the European Parliament and its Italian member Lega per Salvini Premier on 18 April, chanted the term in response to a speech by a right-wing journalist. The rally also featured speeches by far-right leaders from Austria, Czechia, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Meanwhile, an estimated 5,000 protestors chanting “Fascists out of Milan!” organised a number of counter demonstrations in the city and some even attempted to break through a police blockade to reach the square where the ‘Masters of Our House’ rally was taking place. At the same time, the Lega’s government coalition partner, Forza Italia, organised a separate rally to express iopposition to what it and numerous commentators described as the “Remigration Summit”.
An Italian employment agency has signed an agreement with two agencies in Tunisia to facilitate labour migration for young Tunisians to Italy. The five-year framework agreement was signed on 13 April in Tunis between Umana, a leading employment agency which is authorised by the Italian Ministry of Labour, and both the Tunisian National Employment Agency (ANETI) and the Tunisian Agency for Vocational Training (ATFP) in the presence of Tunisian Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Riadh Chaoued and Italian Ambassador to Tunisia Alessandro Prunas. Chaoued told reporters that the agreement represented a “further step” in supporting youth employment while Prunas praised its expected contribution to “supporting regular migration and expanding structured employment opportunities to mutual advantage”.
A new NGO report has highlighted the criminalisation in Italy of people who act in solidarity with people on the move. The report, which was published by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants in co-operation with several ECRE member organisations and which focuses on five EU member states, noted that 19 of the 110 people it identified as having faced judicial proceedings for helping people on the move in 2025 were in Italy. It also focused specifically on the case of six members of the Mediterranea search and rescue organisation NGO who went on trial in October 2025 charged with facilitating “illegal immigration” following a maritime rescue operation that they carried out in September 2020. Separately, it noted several legislative and policy developments in 2025 that “further constrained civic space, particularly affecting migration-related NGOs and the right to protest”.
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