The Italian trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL have criticized the proposal for a new pact on migration and asylum presented by the European Commission, underscoring that the initiative ''upholds the mainly security-based approach'' on migration.
"The European pact for migrant and asylum seeker management presented on September 23 by the European Commission does not, in our opinion, meet the expectations created by the announcement by President Ursula von der Leyen, and [instead] confirms the mainly security-based approach," a joint statement issued by the leaders of three major Italian unions said.
The statement was signed by CGIL's Giuseppe Massafra, CISL's Andrea Cuccello, and UIL's Ivana Veronese.
'Another twisted bureaucratic mechanism'
In the eyes of the unions, ''the announcement that the Dublin Regulation would be left behind just seems to be yet another twisted bureaucratic mechanism, and a harbinger of more suffering."
They said the new pact made it easier for member states to decide whether or not to fulfill the "obligation of sea rescue," or to grant "the rights of those seeking protection and asylum and general human rights."
Instead, according to the unions, member states will be "able to choose whether to welcome, pay, or repatriate human beings fleeing their home countries."
'National migration regulation reform needed immediately'
"In light of the discussion in Europe, we will also consider the plan for reform of the national regulations on migration" the three union leaders stressed in their statement. They said that plans for these reforms could "no longer be postponed" and that there should be a "substantive modification of the security decrees."
The three leaders spoke out about their worries that integration and inclusion processes were becoming sparse and more difficult for migrants to access. They said they spoke on behalf of workers in the migrant reception sector when they called on the Italian cabinet for "a change in direction." They hoped the new proposals would "annul the negative effects of the migration and security pact on migrants and workers in the sector."