On 2 October, Italy adopted new measures on migration. These include an increase in the number of work visas for non-European migrants. The new decree places new restrictions on NGOs using aircraft to monitor arrivals at sea. They will no longer be allowed to tell their ships where to carry out rescues, but will have to report any emergency immediately to the competent air traffic control authority and the national maritime rescue coordination centre.
On 25 September the Italian Ministry of the Interior announced that so far in 2024 there have been 47,569 arrivals compared to 133,098 for the same period in 2023. Flows along the central Mediterranean route have fallen by 61%.
On 24 September, a citizens’ referendum was held, in which 500,000 signatures were collected in a few days, thereby triggering a national referendum on access to citizenship. Currently, children born in Italy must wait until they turn 18 before, they can request nationality, while those who were not born in the country must wait 10 years.
On 24 September, less than three weeks after the suspension of the detention order, the Italian authorities issued a 60-day detention order against the MSF boat GeoBarents. They received two suspension orders, the first for allegedly failing to follow instructions from the Libyan coastguard to rescue people in distress, and the second for supposed technical defects on the boat.
On 21 September, Lampedusa, which remains the most popular point of arrival for irregular boats, saw the arrival of 788 people in one day. The following day, two more boats arrived, having departed from Tunisia and Libya.
On 19 September, the NGO MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans asked the International Criminal Court to open an investigation against the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi. According to the NGO, a message posted by the minister on social networks shows that the Italian government is not respecting the Geneva Convention on refugees.
On 19 September, a new security decree in Italy was validated by the Chamber of Deputies and is currently undergoing review by the Senate. The decree would have a significant impact on the lives of migrants in Italy, allowing for more extensive surveillance in pre-removal detention centres for migrants and prohibiting the sale of SIM cards to individuals lacking official documentation and resident permits.
On September 18, the NGO MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans was ordered to remove all rescue equipment from its vessel, the Mare Jonio, following an unannounced inspection initiated by Matteo Salvini. This inspection coincides with Salvini’s ongoing trial for a six-year prison sentence for blocking 150 rescued migrants from disembarking in Lampedusa. MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans is a plaintiff in the case.
On 18 September, the Palermo police announced that they had shut down about 1,000 social media sites promoting migrant journeys from North Africa, especially Libya and Egypt, to Italy.
On 15 September, the Court of Catania rejected the detention of an asylum-seeker from Egypt on the grounds that his human rights were not guaranteed there. This decision called into question the new regulations of the Ministry of the Interior, which included Egypt in the list of safe countries.
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