Govt parties present bills to boost repatriations, tighten rules on citizenship

Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing

Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and Deputy Premier and Transport

Minister Matteo Salvini's right-wing League party have presented

bills in parliament to make it easier for Italy to send migrants

back to their countries of origin and tighten the rules on

Italian citizenship.

Under a bill presented by FdI, all non-EU nationals given prison

terms of more than one year will be deported to their home

countries via bilateral agreements to be negotiated with those

countries.

FdI House whip Galeazzo Bignami said the crackdown was made

possible by changes to the EU Migrant Pact that Premier Giorgia

Meloni pushed for.

"Convicted immigrants will be repatriated," Bignami told a press

conference.

"This is an initiative that can finally be implemented today

thanks to the changes secured by Giorgia Meloni at the European

level," he said, adding that the planned repatriations would

also help ease overcrowding in Italian prisons.

"Out of a prison population of around 64,000 inmates, around

16,000 are immigrants," he said.

The bill also broadens the scope for people to be stripped of

Italian citizenship.

"We are extending the grounds for revocation of citizenship,

which is currently possible for terrorism and insurgency

offences, to all of the most serious crimes: murder, mass

killing, kidnapping, and mafia-related felonies," explained

FdI's Immigration Chief Sara Kelany.

The Lower House, meanwhile, on Wednesday approved a petition

from the League to fast-track a bill it has presented

introducing new reasons barring people from acquiring Italian

citizenship and new grounds for stripping people of citizenship.

Children born in Italy to migrant parents who live here until

they are 18 can acquire Italian citizenship within a year of

their 18th birthday. League House whip Riccardo Molinari said

that, while the law does not currently foresee grounds to deny

citizenship in such cases, the party's new bill will bring some

in.

"In cases of serious crimes against the person or property, or

drug dealing, the granting of citizenship to foreign minors

should be halted until full rehabilitation," he said.

He said it should be possible to revoke Italian citizenship in

the cases of people who "stab, kill, and rape."

Opposition lawmakers blasted the bills, saying the ruling

majority was trying stop itself being outflanked by

general-turned-politician Roberto Vannacci's new far-right

National Future (FN) party, whose flagship policy is

remigration.

"Our Constitution says that all citizens are equal before the

law, including naturalized citizens," said 5-Star Movement (M5S)

MP Vittoria Baldino.

"We refuse to abandon the principle of equality or to endorse a

principle of racial superiority.

"This is a dangerous drift we cannot allow; therefore, we will

stand as a bulwark against it, acting in the name of the

Constitution and the rule of law".

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