Vulnerability in the Asylum and Protection System in Italy: Legal and Policy Framework and Implementing Practices

Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research report has been published as part of the EU Horizon 2020 research project 'Vulnerabilities Under the Global Protection Regime: How Does the Law Assess, Address, Shape and Produce the Vulnerabilities of the Protection Seekers?' (VULNER GA n. 870845). Our project arose from the finding that the requirement to address migrants' multiple and various vulnerabilities is flooding the policy discourse on asylum and migration at the EU and global levels. This is illustrated by the UN Global Compact for Migration and its objective 7 to 'reduce vulnerabilities' in migration; and by the current focus at EU level on the establishment of vulnerability assessment mechanisms as part of asylum and border procedures, as well as in resettlement programs. Yet, if not based on scientific data and analyses that provide a clear and non-stereotyped understanding of the vulnerabilities that are lived and experienced by migrants, such a policy objective runs the risk of failing to address vulnerabilities, exacerbating existing ones, and even producing new ones. The overall objective of the VULNER project is to produce such scientific knowledge in ways that will assist states in identifying suitable strategies to assess the 'vulnerabilities' of migrants, to address their specific needs and to prevent stereotyped understandings of their lived experiences. The VULNER project also seeks to develop a broader, more thorough and more critical reflection on the increasing use of 'vulnerability' as a legal and policy standard that guides the development and the implementation of migration policies, including how it relates to border control considerations inherent in such policies. This research report presents some of the intermediate research results of the VULNER project, based on the first phase of the project, which consisted of mapping out the vulnerability assessment mechanisms developed by state authorities in Italy, including how they are implemented on the ground through the practices of the public ...