CORRUPTION

International Affairs Forum Fall 2016
With regard to the first procedure, the judicial path to obtaining a residency permit necessarily
involves judicial authorities. Article 18 describes those cases in which violence and serious
exploitative situations have been verified during police operations, investigations, or criminal
proceedings for those crimes related to prostitution or for which arrest in flagrante delicto is
mandatory. This procedure applies when trafficking victims are already cooperating with national
authorities, as evidenced by statements made by a victim during a criminal investigation or a trial. In
this case, the special residence permit is issued by the police superintendent (Questore), at the Public
Prosecutor’s request or with his favourable opinion, to allow the foreigner to escape further violence
and conditioning by criminal organizations, as well as allowing the victim to participate in a program of
social assistance and integration. In the case of the social path to obtaining a residency permit, social
workers and local institutions play an important role in verifying violence and exploitative situations
during their care interventions, and they are also involved with the assistance and integration
programs. According to related case-law, private associations, not enrolled in the public register
mentioned above, cannot verify the conditions required for the issuance of an Article 18 residence
permit because they have not been evaluated as adequate to safeguard reliability and impartiality 11 .
Unfortunately, the Italian legal framework still demonstrates several contradictions due to a structural
gap between the national policy on immigration and overall regional regulations and implementations
of the access to welfare and public and social services for migrants; the consequence of this
structural gap is that the treatment of trafficked migrants differs from region to region within Italy. The
reality of residence permits issued under Article 18 is complex because, in most cases, administrative
tribunals have insisted on the need for victims’ cooperation with national authorities, going against the
spirit and the letter of Article 18. As a result, some Questure apply only the judicial path to obtaining
a residency permit and, in some cases, apply it only if it is “judicially useful”. In doing so, Italian
authorities run the risk of rending ineffective the whole measure and all policies of prevention and
suppression of crimes related to trafficking, to the detriment of victims’ rights and needs.
The intended purpose of Article 18 is to allow trafficked immigrants to integrate regularly in their host
country and to provide them social assistance in the fields of education, health, and work.
The residence permit issued under Article 18 lasts six months, with the possibility to renew it for
one year or longer. The permit allows victims of trafficking to study, work, and have access to care
services. Once the residence permit expires, it can be converted into a work or study permit. It
can be withdrawn if the program is interrupted or if the recipient’s behavior is not compatible with
the permit’s requirements. In this sense, Italian Administrative Tribunals 12 have explained that it is
absolutely lawful to deny a residence permit for reasons of social protection if the potential applicant
has interrupted the protection program by again falling into an exploitative situation. From this point of
view, we should consider whether protection programs are really able to protect victims of exploitation
because, otherwise, these measures come to naught. We should also consider that often the network
of exploitation is the only “social network” accessible to trafficked persons in the absence of real
opportunities for social and economic recovery.
A decision by Administrative Tribunals has clarified that, regarding Article 18, “the particular public
purposes of the protection measure, related to the residence permit for reasons of social protection…
Fall 2016
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