Author
Cases of withdrawal of international protection are provided by Article 13 of the Qualification Decree for refugee status and by Article 18 of the same Decree for subsidiary protection.
Both provisions state that protection status can be revoked when it is found that its recognition was based, exclusively, on facts presented incorrectly or on their omission, or on facts proved by false documentation.
International protection is withdrawn also when, after the recognition, it is ascertained that the status should have been refused to the person concerned because:
- He or she falls within the exclusion clauses.
Decree Law 113/2018, implemented by L 132/2018, has significantly extended the list of crimes triggering exclusion and withdrawal of international protection, including, inter alia, violence or threat to a public official; serious personal injury; female genital mutilation; serious personal injury to a public official during sporting events; theft if the person wears weapons or narcotics, without using them; home theft; non-aggravated drug-relatd offences.[1]
- There are reasonable grounds for considering him or her as a danger to the security of Italy or, having been convicted by a final judgement of a particularly serious crime, he or she constitutes a danger for the public order and public security.
The withdrawal of a protection status,[2] and the appeals against it,[3] are subject to the same procedure foreseen for Cessation decisions. The only exception worth mentioning concerns beneficiaries of international protection for whom the protection is revoked because they fall within the exclusion clauses: when the NAC assesses that, in application of the principle of non-refoulement, a special protection must be granted, the residence permit issued by the Questura will not be convertible in a permit for work reasons pursuant to art. 6 TUI.
[1] Articles 12(1)(c) and 16(d-bis) Qualification Decree, as amended by Article 8 Decree Law 113/2018 and L 132/2018.
[2] Article 33 Procedure Decree; Article 14 PD 21/2015.
[3] Article 19(2) LD 150/2011.