Thousands of subscriptions to our proposal: a permit of stay for migrants who are looking for a job, renewable and with the possibility to be transformed into a working permit, or a permit of stay for irregularly employed foreigners.
During the ongoing global sanitary emergency, the generalized closure of borders by many countries highly limited human mobility, also for those willing to return to their own country. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens are residing irregularly in Italy.
The present situation results from the lack of regular opening of legal channels for labour migration in the past decade, combined with the 2018 “security decrees” that abolished humanitarian protection, thus throwing scores of regularly registered migrants into illegality. But there is more: the majority of these foreigners work in important sectors of the Italian labour market, such as health care assistance, agriculture, logistics, while others are asylum seekers who have provisionally been denied protection.
In this context, we strongly believe it is necessary to regularise the legal status of undocumented foreign citizens living in Italy, and we have developed a proposition based on two essential goals.
The first is the need to make thousands of people living and/or working in Italy emerge from their state of invisibility. The second and consequent need is to guarantee individual and public health.
Being able to identify who lives in Italy makes it possible to include everyone in programmes of disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and is thus indispensable for everyone’s health.
The European Commission stated as well that, if they cannot return migrants to their country of origin, “Member States enjoy broad discretion to grant a residence permit or another authorization offering a right to stay to irregular migrants for compassionate, humanitarian or other reasons, as provided for by Article 6(4) of Directive 2008/115/EC (hereafter “the Return Directive”)” (COVID-19: Guidance on the implementation of relevant EU provisions in the area of asylum and return procedures and on resettlement).
Our proposal includes two measures:
1) The possibility to request a permit of stay for migrants who are looking for a job, either for those without a valid permit of stay, or with a permit of stay which cannot be converted into a working permit. The permit would have a one-year validity, it would be renewable and could be transformed into a working permit.
2) The possibility to request a working permit for irregularly employed foreigners. This would enable to regularize thousands of persons currently working without a regular contract. Any related criminal, administrative and fiscal legal issues would be suspended when the request is filed and voided when the permit of stay is granted. The permit would have a one-year validity and it would be renewable.
Our proposed legislative amendments
A temporary permit of stay pending employment, renewable and convertible into work permit, is granted to the foreign citizen who can prove through adequate documentation that s/he was residing in Italy at the date of February 29th, 2020 either without a valid permit of stay, or with a permit of stay which cannot be converted into a working permit.
A working permit of stay is granted to the foreign citizen who can prove through adequate documentation that s/he was irregularly employed at the date of February 29th, 2020, or at the date of the application; and that s/he was in Italy at the date of February 29th, 2020 either without a valid permit of stay, or with a permit of stay which cannot be converted into a working permit.
Both permits of stay have a one year validity, pursuant to art. 5 (3) Decree Law n.286 of 1998.
The request can be presented starting from the 8th day from the implementation of the present decree law.
From the implementation date of the present decree law, until the end of the procedure, the penal and administrative lawsuits against the employer and the employees are suspended in relation to:
- the illegal entry and stay in the national territory, with the exclusion of crimes foreseen in art. 12 of Decree Law n. 286 of 1998.
- illegal employment of workers, including of a financial, fiscal, welfare or assistance nature.
The working contract must be regularly subscribed and registered at the National Institute of Social Security (INPS).
The employer will be discharged from fiscal, welfare or assistance obligations of the previous working period by depositing the lump sum of € 500,00 to the employee.
It is possible to subscribe the proposal by filling out the module.
The list of the subscriptions.
Photo by Rita Vicari on Unsplash