Forms and levels of material reception conditions

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According to the law, the scope of material reception conditions and services offered to asylum seekers shall be defined by decree of the Ministry of Interior to guarantee uniform levels of reception across the territory, taking into account the peculiarities of each type of reception centre.^[1]

The latest decree approving the tender specifications schemes (capitolato d’appalto) was adopted on 27 March 2024.^[2]

Under the tender specification schemes issued following L. 50/2023, the daily amount per person awarded to the centres’ management was increased compared to the 2021 tender scheme:  €37 for non-collective structures up to 50 places, compared to the previous €28. However, the items corresponding to the necessary costs have remained almost unchanged (slightly lower amount for staff and slightly higher for the management of the structure). Higher costs are instead foreseen for additional and possible services including the on-call intervention of a night operator.^[3]

This amount does not appear sufficient to favour small facilities. For collective structures, costs are higher (40 euros 3 for collective structures up to 50 places) and this confirms the limited interest in adopting policies that favour the reception in small structures throughout the territory on the model of the SAI system, which avoids ghettoization and favours integration.

The new tender specification schemes guarantee basic needs such as personal hygiene, pocket money, a €5 phone card but, in line with the changes introduced by Law 50/2023, indicates the following services as purely optional and as mere subcategories of social assistance: Italian language courses; orientation to local services; psychological support, legal information service, professional training, leisure activities and job orientation.

Some of these services, (job orientation and professional training) are discretionary in CAS, and completely absent for the (few) asylum seekers within the SAI system, that only benefit from first level services.

The new tender schemes distinguish the supply of staff depending on the number of guests and depending on the nature of the centre, i.e. depending on whether they are individual housing units or collective centres.

In table below it is possible to compare the schemes provided, for example, for reception facilities made of individual housing units and collective centres, in case they host from 41 up to 50 guests: in collective centres the demand for personnel and therefore the services requested are lower than the ones in collective centres. As a result, linguistic mediation, which is already low in non-collective centres, corresponding, in the case of 50 guests, to 28 minutes per person per week, in collective centres it becomes even lower, corresponding to 16 minutes per person. The hours of social worker, 36 per week in non-collective centres and just 14 in collective centres, make clear how the services that will be provided will be scarce and insufficient considering that they will include Italian courses, legal assistance, professional orientation and psychological assistance.

Source: attachment A (table) to the tender specification schemes, MoI.^[4]

In relation to financial allowances i.e. pocket money for personal needs, each asylum seeker hosted in governmental  reception centres and CAS receives €2.50 per day.

Italian law does not provide any financial allowance for asylum applicants who are not in accommodation.

[1] Article 12(1) Reception Decree.

[2] Ministry of Interior Decree published on 27 March 2024  available in Italian at bit.ly/3ws5KvP:

[3] See Attachment B to the tender specification scheme valid for first reception centres and CAS published on 27 March 2024 and available at: bit.ly/3ws5KvP.

[4] MoI website, Attachment A available at: https://bit.ly/3tCYghX.