Overview of the main changes since the previous report update

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The previous report update was published in July 2025.

International protection

• State of emergency: The declaration of the State of Emergency due to numbers of migrants’ arrivals was extended until April 2025.[1] The Regional Administrative Court of Lazio and then the Council of State rejected the appeal for access to the documentation justifying the declaration and extension of the state of emergency. Later, by Ordinance No. 1170 of 5 November 2025, issued by the Italian Civil Protection Department,^[2] it was provided that the Ministry of the Interior will be responsible for the completion of the pending activities by maintaining the operation of the special accounting fund until 10 April 2027.

Asylum procedure

• Key asylum statistics: In 2025, 126,635 first asylum requests were registered in Italy,[3] representing a decrease compared to 2024 (when 151,120 applications were registered), but still almost double the number of applications registered in 2022 (77,200).  Throughout the year, 104,560 first instance decisions were issued. The overall protection rate (including special protection) at first instance stood at 30% – a slight decrease compared to 2024, when it was 35%, but even more significant if compared with 2022, when the protection rate was of 47%. Out of these decisions 5,965 (5.7%) granted refugee status, 11,455 subsidiary protection (10.96%) and 13,945 (13.34%) national protection (protezione speciale).[4]
• Access to the asylum procedure: In 2025, cases of denial of access to the asylum procedure continued to be recorded in Italy. In Trieste, several cases involving applicants from Nepal were successfully challenged before the Civil Court. In addition, following a class action before the Veneto Regional Administrative Court, the Questure (Police Headquarters) of Vicenza and Venice were ordered to address the serious organisational shortcomings that had resulted in significant delays in access to the asylum procedure.[5]
• Dublin procedure: In 2025, In 2025, 8,502 requests were sent by Italy in the outgoing procedure, an increase compared to the 7,926 requests sent in 2024. Transfers conducted were 22, out of which: 5 for family procedure, 2 for discretionary clauses, Article 17 (1 and 2), 11 in the take charge procedure, 4 in the take back procedure. Regarding the incoming procedure (i.e. requests sent to Italy by other countries), 19,889 requests (including both take charge and take back requests) were received by Italy, decreasing from the 24, 217 received in 2024. It is however relevant to note that no transfers took place in the take back procedure, probably due to the general suspension of transfers communicated by Italy to the other countries on 5 December 2022 and still maintained for 2025. Regardless, some transfers following take charge requests were still conducted: 66 transfers were realised based on the take charge procedure, 54 family procedure and 12 based on the discretionary clauses (Article 17(1 and 2)).^[6]
• Safe country list: On 31 January 2025, the Civil Court of Appeal of Rome, suspending the validation of detentions of asylum seekers moved to Albania, decided to request another preliminary judgement to the CJEU. In its judgment of 1 August 2025 in joined cases C-758/24 (Alace) and C -759/2024 (Canpelli) the CJEU held that Article 37 of Directive 2013/32, read in conjunction with Annex I thereto, must be interpreted as precluding a Member State from designating as a safe country of origin a third country that does not satisfy, for certain categories of persons, the substantive conditions for that designation set out in Annex I to the Directive. This applies even where, as in the Italian case, the designation as safe country was made by law.[7] Since people held in Albanian centres were those subject to the border procedure, i.e. asylum applicants coming from safe countries of origin or evading border controls, the CJEU decision directly affected transfers to Albania, as in most cases the country of origin of the people rescued could no longer be included in the safe countries of origin list.

Reception conditions

• Access to reception: Through a decision published on 29 April 2026, the administrative court for Veneto ruled that the exclusion provision for those who apply for asylum after 90 days of entering Italy^[8] must be disapplied, due to its conflict with Article 20 of the Reception Conditions Directive, which does not provide for any limits on access to reception measures on this basis. Furthermore, the court noted that where the same law prioritises access to reception for “those who have arrived in the national territory following sea rescue operations” it has to be interpreted as not affecting the principle that reception must be guaranteed to all individuals who have applied for international protection.[9]
• Housing: As of 31 December 2025, 101,106 asylum applicants were accommodated in emergency accommodation centres (CAS), 3,652 in hotspots 3,342 in Government centres.^[10] The total number of people accommodated in the SAI system on 31 January 2026 was 39,497.
• Freedom of movement: After the entry into force of the Eu Pact for asylum, the provision set out in Article 9 of the Reception Directive concerning the restrictions of freedom of movement of asylum applicants started to be applied to applicants in border procedure in a way that they were de facto detained. Already two decisions from the Civil Court of Palermo and from the Civil Court of Bologna clarified the limits of the provision included in Article 5- ter of the Reception Decree.[11]

Detention of asylum seekers

• Places of detention: In 2025, in line with the framework established by Decree-Law 20/2023, as converted into Law 50/2023, the use of detention facilities – whether hotspots, CPRs or the so-called “locali idonei” – has increased. However, serious limitations on the rights of detained persons continue to be reported. The network of pre-removal detention centres (CPRs) expanded to 11 facilities, including the new centre in Gjadër (Albania), while the hotspot system continued to operate with 13 facilities.
• Detention conditions: The National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty’s Report to Parliament published in June 2026, includes data relating to previous years on the number of persons held and returns carried out from the so-called “locali idonei”, generally set in local police headquarters (Questure). The increasing use of these facilities raises concerns considering the shortcomings already identified. Detainees are informed of the possibility of requesting voluntary departure, but not of their right to apply for international protection. No medical assessment of fitness for detention is carried out, although a doctor from the National Health Service may be contacted upon request; mobile phones are confiscated and may only be used under police supervision to contact family members or lawyers. Regarding conditions in hotspots, the monitoring visit carried out by ASGI in Pantelleria in 2025 identified persistent structural deficiencies, including de facto detention without a legal basis, restrictions on communication and legal assistance, shortcomings in access to asylum procedures, deficiencies in age-assessment procedures for minors, and inadequate conditions due to overcrowding and the lack of dedicated spaces for vulnerable groups.

Content of international protection

• Residence permits: Refugee status and subsidiary protection beneficiaries are recognised 5-year residence permits, while special protection holders have access 2-year permits. Renewal delays are chronic, with waiting times that can reach up to 16-18 months, with only a receipt being provided as interim proof, which the authorities increasingly refuse to treat as valid after nine months. A class action is pending before the Veneto TAR over these delays.
• Long-term residence and naturalization: Refugees and subsidiary protection holders can apply for EU long-term residence after 5 years; only 78 such permits were issued to protection holders in 2025 (25 refugees, 53 subsidiary protection), alongside 4,245 renewals. For citizenship, refugees wait 5 years, subsidiary protection holders 10 years; 923 refugees were naturalised in 2025 (data on subsidiary protection holders was not provided).

• Cessation and withdrawal: 471 cessation decisions and 175 withdrawal decisions were issued in 2025. Return visits to the country of origin remain a common trigger for cessation proceedings.
• Family reunification: Refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries are exempt from the requirements imposed on other third-country nationals to access family reunification (i.e. income, housing, two-year-residence). Courts continue to intervene against delays in replies from embassies (particularly in Kabul, Islamabad, and Casablanca).
• Housing: The System of Accommodation and Integration (SAI system) reported having 867 active projects with a capacity of 41,700 places (out of which 41,159 were occupied) as of the end of 2025. Reception in SAI is granted to beneficiaries of protection for a maximum of 6 months (extendable), and many beneficiaries are left without accommodation in the time between their exit from first-reception or CAS centres and the moment in which they are placed in SAI. Public housing access is formally equal to Italian citizens, and courts have repeatedly struck down discriminatory regional residency and documentary requirements.

• Social welfare: While in principle beneficiaries of protection receive a treatment equal to that of Italian citizens in terms of accessing social welfare, access to the new “inclusion income” schemes (replacing the ‘Citizens’ income’ – Reddito di Cittadinanza – scheme from 2024) is only possible after at least 5 years of residence, thus excluding beneficiaries of protection that have been recently issued a permit.

Temporary protection

The information given hereafter constitutes a short summary of the annex on Temporary Protection to this report. For further information, see Annex on Temporary Protection.

• Key statistics: In the period between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2026, 21,481 new applications for temporary protection and 73,478 applications to renew Temporary Protection permits were presented. There were 11,024 applications to convert Temporary Protection into work permits in 2025, plus 5,635 more in in first quarter of 2026. 955 asylum decisions were issued to Ukrainian nationals, out of which 910 were positive. As of 31 December 2025, 2,963 minors of Ukrainian nationality were registered – representing roughly 78% of all female minors present in reception facilities.
• Access to asylum: It appears that Ukrainian men are increasingly applying for asylum instead of renewing passports (to avoid contact with Ukrainian consular authorities linked to conscription).

Content of temporary protection

• Housing: Reception for temporary protection beneficiaries occurs in CAS and SAI centres, as well as through “accoglienza diffusa” (community hosting). The economic contribution for private accommodation (€300/adult, €150/child) ended on 20 April 2025. The system is being progressively folded into the ordinary SAI/CAS reception network, and available places cover only about 20% of demand.

[1]          According to the Civil Protection Code (Article 24 (3) of LD 1/2018) the duration of the state of national emergency cannot exceed 12 months and can be extended for no more than a further 12 months. Therefore, after April 2025, the already existing state of emergency cannot be extended but a new one can be declared.

[2]          Ordinance No. 1170 of 5 November 2025, issued by the Italian Civil Protection Department, available here.

[3]          Eurostat, Asylum applicants by type – annual aggregated data.

[4]          Eurostat, First instance decisions.

[5]       ASGI, Asilo impossibile: il TAR Veneto condanna la strutturale inaccessibilità al diritto di asilo nelle Questure di Vicenza e Venezia, 20 March 2026, available here.

^[6]          Response of the Dublin Unit to the public access information request sent by ASGI.

[7]          CJEU, joined cases C-758/24 and C-759/24, decision of 1 August 2025, available here.

^[8]       Article 15 quinquies Decree Law 145/2024 as amended by L. 187/2024 and introducing Article 1 (2 bis) to the Reception Decree.

[9]          Administrative court for Veneto region, decision no, 971/2026, published on 29 April 2026.

^[10]         Response to a FOIA data request presented to the MOI by ASGI.

[11]         Civil Court of Palermo, decision of 29 June 2026; Civil Court of Bologna, decision of 10 July 2026.