| ITALIAN
LAW
The residence permit for social protection,
provided for under Art 18 of consolidation act T.U. 286/98,
comes as a significant and important innovation not only
at the Italian level but also at the European.
The core element of this act is its intention to help victims
of trafficking in humans, granting them the possibility
to break the unnatural bond that ties them to their persecutors,
and enabling them to start out on the road towards a form
of social integration that can be lasting and definitive.
The rationale behind the regulation was to make a decisive
step to go beyond the simple concept of legal protection
linked to “cooperation” during a trial and,
as such, lasting only as long as the trial, without leading
to a stable work permit. […]
More in detail, the regulatory structure of Art. 18 is indissolubly
linked to Art. 27 of the implementation Regulations of the
T.U. (DPR 394/99) which better clarifies its content and
scope.
One essential characteristic of this institution is that
it provides for a double process to obtain a residence permit:
the judicial and the “social” process. Art.
18 of the T.U. provides for the possibility of ascertaining
situations of “violence” or “severe exploitation”
of a foreigner, during police operations and investigations,
or as part of proceedings concerning offences provided for
by the so-called Merlin Law on prostitution, or those provided
for by Art. 380 of the penal code on the compulsoriness
of arrest in flagrancy; but it also provides for those cases
in which the identification of such situations takes place
“during welfare operations by the social services”.
Art. 27, Comma 1, Letter a) of the Regulations confirms
in a comprehensive manner how the proposal for issuing the
aforementioned permit may be carried out “by the social
services of local authorities, or associations, authorities
and other organisations in the register provided for by
Art. 52” of the T.U., thus confirming the existence
of the social process.
The second element required by deregulation is the existence
of “concrete risks” for the personal safety
of the person, on the basis of their own declarations or
attempts made to escape from conditioning by the criminal
organisation. The element of danger acquires a character
of extreme importance and it is confirmed by Comma 2 of
Art. 27, which refers to its “seriousness” and
“present existence” (“gravità ed
attualità”).
Avv. Lorenzo Trucco
President of the Associazione Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione,
A.S.G.I.
|
