Premier Giorgia Meloni has renewed her support for a 22-year law that deports migrants who do not have a work contract and has vowed to combat a "disturbing" mismatch between the number of applications for work permits and employment contracts in some regions.
“I believe the principle that inspired (the 2002) Bossi-Fini (law) should be maintained," Meloni told public broadcaster Rai1's 'Porta a Porta' chat show late on Thursday.
"You can enter Italy if you have a regular work contract and are able to support yourself,” Meloni said.
The government is keen to fight criminal gangs whom it believes are exploiting loopholes in Italy's legal visa system for foreign workers to bring illegal immigrants into the country, Meloni said, citing "disturbing" 2023 visa monitoring figures, especially in the southern Campania region around Naples.
Campania is one of the main agricultural suppliers for Italy, Europe and the world, with grapes, lemons and buffalo mozzarella all originating primarily from the region.
"What emerged from our monitoring is disturbing data, especially regarding Campania, which accounts for 157,000 applications for (visas for) seasonal workers - over half of the national total - but which does not have the production capacity to absorb those people,” she said.
Only a very small percentage of the foreigners who obtained work visas actually signed a work contract in Campania - less than 3 percent - according to government's figures.
Meloni has alerted the national anti-Mafia prosecutor to what the government believes is evidence that organised crime has infiltrated the management of migrant visa applications in return for payment of some 15,000 euros per person.
"We have this data because we have done the checks and I would like it to be verified that such checks were carried out in the past - as I suspect is not the case," Meloni stated.
“I believe organized crime has infiltrated this mechanism and is using regular migration to conceal illegal immigration based on bribes," " Meloni continued.
"And so I don't intend to allow that," she said.
A campaign group that lobbies for more liberal immigration policies agrees that Italy's visa system is vulnerable to fraud, blaming the country's cumbersome bureaucracy for the problem.
Work visas issued last year were six times higher than the government's quotas and less than a quarter - 23.52 percent - resulted in residence permits and regular employment for migrants, the Ero Straniero group said in a statement last week.
Illegal boat migrant arrivals to Italy plunged by 60 percent this year compared with the period of last year, according to the interior ministry and the government has pledged to boost safe, legal migration pathways as it continues to curb migrant landings.
In 2023, the government set a quota of 136,000 migrants to enter Italy for seasonal work, especially in the agriculture sector. This year, the quota has been set still higher at 151,000, and will rise to 165,000 in 2025.
