The war unleashed on the territory of Ukraine is bringing barbarity and terror back to Europe, endangering the peace, freedom and security of multitudes of men and women.
We would have hoped that, after the bloody events in the Balkans and in the area of the former Yugoslavia, and in memory of the catastrophe caused by the Second World War, military rhetoric would be abandoned from political discourse and military practices banished from the horizon of the possibilities of action of governments and peoples.
We hope that the wisdom enshrined in Article 11 of the Italian Constitution and the repudiation of war will be the only guideline within which the Italian government wishes to move its initiative and, therefore, that it will provide all necessary support to the populations affected by the conflict without, however, endorsing any form of intervention, even if indirect, in the ongoing war.
In this context, we believe that it is the duty of the Italian government – unlike what it has done in recent emergencies in other countries (Afghanistan, for example) – to activate all the channels at its disposal to ensure the implementation by the European Union of Directive 2001/55/EC in favour of people fleeing the conflict, as well as to ensure international protection measures in favour of the same, even if they flee because they refuse to participate in the war for political, ethical or religious reasons. That is to say, without prejudice to any asylum applications submitted or to be submitted, that a Ministerial Decree be issued pursuant to Article 20 of Legislative Decree 286/98 that guarantees at least the fundamental social rights such as the right to work, to participate in training and education programmes, to obtain adequate housing, to receive (if they do not have the necessary resources) social assistance contributions that allow them to earn a decent living and adequate medical care, the right of minors under 18 years of age to access the education system and all individual and social rights on an equal footing with Italian minors.
In view of the large number of Ukrainian citizens in Italy, especially women, the Italian government must also facilitate the right to family reunification with relatives, even beyond the subjective and objective limits currently imposed by Italian law and with simplification of the relevant administrative practices.
The Board of Directors of the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration
Foto di Katie Godowski da Pexels