Pak applicants to face tougher Italy visa checks

ROME:

Italy will offer an extra 10,000 migrant work visas next year for people who look after old people and the disabled, the government said on Wednesday, as it adopted a new package of migration rules.

The government statement said, among other things, that tougher checks would apply in 2025 for applications from countries deemed to be at higher risk of fraud, namely Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Saddled with an ageing population and a sagging birth rate, Italy has long faced a shortage of caregivers, and charities including the Sant'Egidio Catholic group have lobbied the government to allow more of them to come from abroad.

The "experimental" extra quota for caregivers will add to the 452,000 work visa number announced for the 2023-2025 period last year - which represented an increase of nearly 150% from the previous three years.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist government has passed an array of measures to curb illegal arrivals, but has also expanded legal immigration channels in response to growing labour shortages.

Wednesday's decree featured another crackdown on sea rescue NGOs, indicating that aircraft charities use to spot migrant boats in distress must immediately inform authorities of their movements or else face penalties.

The measure echoes what is already in place for NGO boats, which are subject to fines and grounding at port when Italian authorities decide that their rescue operations have not been correctly coordinated with the coast guard.

The new decree also introduced stricter anti-fraud safeguards in the migrant visa system, after Meloni denounced it had been infiltrated and fraudulently exploited by crime groups, including the mafia.