Italy, burdened by an aging population and a falling birth rate, has long faced a shortage of caregivers, and charities such as the Catholic group Sant’Egidio have pressured the government to allow more of them to come from abroad.
The additional “experimental” quota for carers will add to the 452,000 work visas announced for the period 2023-2025 last year, which represented an increase of almost 150% on the previous three years.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has approved a series of measures to curb illegal arrivals, but has also expanded legal immigration channels in response to growing labor shortages.
Wednesday’s decree included another crackdown on maritime rescue NGOs, stating that charities that use aircraft to detect migrant boats in distress must immediately inform authorities of their movements or face sanctions.
The measure echoes what is already in place for NGO ships, which are subject to fines and running aground in port when Italian authorities decide their rescue operations have not been properly coordinated with the coast guard.
The new decree also introduced stricter anti-fraud safeguards into the immigrant visa system, after Meloni alleged that it had been fraudulently infiltrated and exploited by criminal groups, including the mafia.
The government statement said, among other things, that in 2025 stricter controls would be applied to applications from countries considered to be at higher risk of fraud, namely Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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