ITALY
LEGAL AND POLICY CONTEXT
In recent years, Italy has become a major entry
point for migrants and refugees who take the
Mediterranean Sea route to Europe. In 2016,
the number of asylum seekers rose to 123,600, a
47% increase compared to 2015 1 . Many of them
are children: in 2016, a total of 5,984 unaccom-
panied and 5,639 accompanied children applied
for asylum 2 . Following European Council
decisions 2015/1523 and 2015/1601, asylum
seekers in clear need of international protection
can be relocated from Italy and Greece to other
EU Member States. The decisions stipulated
that 39,600 asylum seekers would be relocated
from Italy by 26 September 2017 3 .
The Italian reception process is comprised of
three major phases: (a) first aid and assistance
in centres set up in the main places of disem-
barkation (“hotspots” and emergency centres);
(b) the first reception phase in centres for the
accommodation of asylum seekers run by the
Ministry of Interior (in local administrative
divisions - prefettura); and (c) the second
recept