Italy: One-Third of Prison Population is Foreigners

The below article by the Italian daily, Il Giornale, reports that as of the end of 2021, fully 1/3rd of Italy's prison population is comprised of foreigners. This in a country that has to deal with the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples, and the Ndrangheta in Calabria, maxi-trials, and so on. In addition to the above three versions of the Mafia, Italy is now dealing with a particularly vicious Nigerian mafia. 

This is a country still dealing with the Covid pandemic. Italy can hardly afford to add the problem of illegal migration, along with the resultant crime and social welfare costs.  However, with Matteo Salvini no longer interior minister, the waves of migrants crossing the Mediterranean continue unabated.

The below article is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/carceri-piene-extracomunitari-sono-1-su-3-1999385.html

Jails full of (non-EU) foreigners: One in three

2 January 2022

Under-Secretary Molteni (Lega party): "Bankrupt management of immigration"

by Chiara Giannini

Thirty-two percent of the inmate population of Italy is composed of foreigners.  This means that the number of non-EU citizens who committed crimes during 2021 was 1/3rd of the total. According to the statistics issued by the Department for the Administration of Pententuries, as of 31 October (2021), there were  54,307 prisoners in Italian jails, of whom, 17,315 came from a foreign country. At the end of 2020, however, in the face of a larger prison population, foreigners accounted for 19,900, and at the end of 2019, accounted for 20,200. Even if, as reported in the Antigone Report, the presence of "foreign prisoners in the Italian (prisons) is still not uniform either at the regional level or at the level of individual penal institutes. In fact, in some institutes, regardless of their size, there was an elevated presence in absolute or percentage-wise terms, while in other jails, the presence of prisoners is reduced to a few units". In certain (prisons), the foreign presence is as much as 78%. 

Examining the data, it is revealed that 80% of the crimes are committed by illegal foreigners, or by people who are in Italy without the right to be here. Considering that during the course of the year just concluded, 67,040 illegal foreigners landed in Italy, compared to 34,154 the previous year, and 11,471 in 2019, the trend could, however, vary greatly during the current year.

"That data pertaining to the arrivals is alarming," explains Interior Under-Secretary Nicola Molteni to Il Giornale. "Of these 67,000, more than 40,000 arrive on small boats, rubber dinghies, or sailing ships, and about 10,000 via those NGOS going around the Mediterranean violating international conventions, laws, and regulatory provisions. The dramatic figure is the comparison in respect to previous years. This means that the policies of managing immigration post-Salvini, both at the national level and the supranational level, have been bankrupt." And he continues, " At a time in which illegal immigration increases and is out of control, obviously along with native criminality, which unfortunately exists, which the police forces are fighting in the front lines, there also arises criminality and delinquency not only regarding predatory crimes, but especially drug traffic, drug dealing, and crimes linked to the Nigerians, who are imposing themselves in many parts of our country.   

As for (criminal) complaints, 70% of those are made against illegal foreigners, who constitute 10% of the non-EU foreigners present in (Italy). In short,  those who don't have papers in order then wind up living on the streets given that their condition prevents them from finding a job, and, therefore, entering the world of organized crime or in delinquency. This raises the long-standing problem of repatriations, too few and poorly organized. From July 2020 to August 2021, there were only 4,321. The crimes by foreigners were mostly for drug dealing (20%), child prostitution (10%), negligent injuries (9%), homicides (8%), falsification of documents (8%), theft, and robbery (6% of the total). In addition, of 62 femicides occurring during the course of 2021, 27% were committed or alleged to be committed by an immigrant.