Europe : AP analysis: Italy fails to fingerprint thousands of migrants, despite EU law‏

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/1dc180cfee914643b3c285cd53715e0a/EU--Italy-Fingerprinting-Migrants

AP analysis: Italy fails to fingerprint thousands of migrants, despite
EU law
By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press
July 04, 2014 - 12:29 pm EDT


MILAN — Every day, boatloads of refugees arrive on Italian shores.
European Union law requires Italy to fingerprint them, so that if they
apply for asylum in another country they can be sent back to their port
of entry. Instead, Italy is letting thousands of migrants slip quietly
into northern Europe, with no record of their time in Italy.

An Associated Press analysis of EU and Italian data suggests that as
many as a quarter of the migrants who should have been fingerprinted in
the first half of the year were not. While EU law required Italy to
share fingerprints for about 56,700 of the migrants, only 43,382 sets
were sent.

Even accounting for possible delays in sending fingerprints to Brussels,
it's clear that thousands of refugees are slipping through the cracks.

"It's a very serious problem," European Home Affairs Commissioner
Cecilia Malmstroem told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter this week.
After complaints from member states, the European Commission is studying
whether Italy is living up to its EU obligations. The Italian government
didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.

EU countries are angry that they can't send migrants back to their first
port of entry when there is no record of where that was. Human rights
officials also worry that the refugees can't benefit from U.N.
protections for refugees if they don't officially exist.

Italy, by not fingerprinting migrants, avoids the possibility that
they'll be sent back. It is already spending 9.5 million euros ($13
million) a month to rescue thousands of migrants making the perilous
crossing from North Africa aboard smugglers' boats in an operation
launched after 360 migrants drowned off Sicily last year, and feels it's
doing more than its share already.

The refugees themselves are happy not to be fingerprinted. With
unemployment at 12.6 percent and youth unemployment at 43 percent, new
arrivals have little interest in staying in Italy, and would rather
settle in northern Europe where there are better job opportunities and
more established refugee communities.

Aided by Rome's blind eye, Syrian migrants in particular are falling off
Italy's radar, making their way to Milan's central train station in
groups of 100 or more. They are met by railway police, aid workers and
city officials who offer food, a bed and — for those who ask — advice on
asylum.

Of the 10,500 who arrived in Milan since October, only eight requested
asylum in Italy, city officials said. Many others, after a few hours or
days in Milan, headed north with no record of ever having set foot in Italy.

"No Syrian wants to get fingerprinted," said Shadi Howara, a doctor from
Damascus passing through Milan.

PHOTO: In this picture taken on Thursday, June 11, 2014, Syrian refugees
rest after arriving at Milan's Central train station, Italy. With
thousands of refugees arriving in Italy each day aboard smugglers' boats
from Libya, Italy is letting many migrants just melt away, not
registering them or fingerprinting them as European Union regulations
require, according to migrants, aid workers and local officials. (AP
Photo/Luca Bruno)In this picture taken on Thursday, June 11, 2014,
Syrian refugees rest after arriving at Milan's Central train station,
Italy. With thousands of refugees arriving in Italy each day aboard
smugglers' boats from Libya, Italy is letting many migrants just melt
away, not registering them or fingerprinting them as European Union
regulations require, according to migrants, aid workers and local
officials. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
The Italian Interior Ministry reported 60,435 migrants arrived by boat
in Italy this year through June 30. A number of those are accompanied
children who by EU rules shouldn't be fingerprinted; Save the Children
estimates there were 3,700. During the same time period, the EU said
Italy shared 43,382 sets of fingerprints.

As more Syrians began to arrive and officials spotted children sprawled
out on stone benches, the city of Milan set up a welcome desk in the
train station in October, according to the city's top immigration
official, Pierfrancesco Majorino.

The welcome desk, a table on the mezzanine of the cavernous station,
sits behind yellow plastic barriers marked "Syrian Emergency."

The scene is surreal: As a nearby escalator ferries fashionable
commuters to and from work in Italy's financial capital, Syrian war
refugees mill about in donated clothes and little more than a plastic
bag's worth of belongings, waiting for the next train north.

Why haven't they been fingerprinted?

"You have to ask the Interior Ministry," Majorino said, adding that only
law enforcement agencies — not city workers — are authorized to carry
out the task.

The Interior Ministry declined repeated requests for comment on Italy's
application of the EU fingerprinting directive.

Syrian refugee Issam Zarai, 35, spent 30 hours in a packed boat with his
wife and two children, 6 and 7, before being rescued at sea. On his way
to Sweden, he had no problem with Italy's lax application of the EU
directive.

"They took no fingerprints," he said, "and no names."

Associated Press writers Kavitha Surana and Nicole Winfield contributed
from Rome.