Fewer people are now seeking asylum in Italy

The number of people making asylum applications in Italy in 2018 has been decreasing. In the first six months of the year 33,770 men, women and children from Africa, Asia and Europe, and a handful from South America, have requested international protection in our country. The number is clearly decreasing and will surely continue to decrease in the coming months. Despite this decrease, Italian politicians continue to produce propaganda surrounding the issue of migration.

Carta di Roma infographics tell a complex story

To provide a different picture of which countries asylum seekers in Italy come from, the Association Carta di Roma has published some infographics including selected rankings dawn up by authoritative bodies that help us to better understand the situation in those countries.

Unlike what we often hear or read, people do not only flee their countries because of a war. Sometimes democracy is very poorly enforced, in other cases press freedoms are severely restricted or the poverty threshold (not only economic) makes it impossible to live.

The motivations that push, and that have pushed, hundreds of thousands of people to make very difficult and dangerous journeys are complex: it is not just escaping from a war.

We should not forget that the right to asylum is not collective and each individual case should be judged on its own merits.

Poverty and restricted freedoms often go hand in hand

Economic migrants are often separated from asylum seekers in news reports. However, the situation here is also more complex than it might seem at first glance. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which was developed by the United Nations Development Programme reveals some of this complexity. This ranking takes into account only a hundred countries, mainly those in which acute poverty is more widespread. The MPI also takes into account the lack of a dignified education and health system, employment or personal security as reasons for people seeking asylum. As the editors of the Index write: "No single indicator, such as income, can capture the many aspects that contribute to poverty."

As the rankings collected by Carta di Roma show, very often the poorest countries – and those from which people flee or wish to flee – are also those at the bottom of the democracy rankings or where civil rights are not protected. In other words poor economically, but also poor in terms of democracy and freedom.

A practical example: The Gambia

We can look at The Gambia for an illustration of this. One young Gambian asylum seeker committed suicide because he had seen his application for protection in Italy rejected. In 2016 The Gambia held free elections after 20 years of the Jammeh presidency and major restrictions on political and civil rights where loosened. Now, according to Freedom House, "fundamental freedoms, including the rights of assembly, association and speech, have improved, but the rule of law is not consolidated. LGBT people suffer serious discrimination and violence against women remains a serious problem." So although there is no war in The Gambia, people may still have legitimate reasons to flee and seek asylum.