Italy passes decree against illegal employment of foreigners

Rome: The Italian Cabinet on September 4 passed a decree law to ensure the “legal and orderly” entry of foreign workers into Italy and to counter illegal employment.

Ensuring a “legal and orderly” entry of foreign workers into Italy and “countering the illegal recruitment and employment of foreign manpower” are the objectives of a decree law approved by the Italian Cabinet on September 4.

It also aims to bring in “greater efficiency in the immigration offices, in order to benefit both users and employers,” the Italian government said.

One of the main parts of the decree highlights a “revision of the term for the adoption of the authorization for contracted employment, establishing that this term begins from the time at which the request is included in the entrance quotas instead of from the date of presentation of the request.”

In addition, “the checks currently in place in relation to the veracity of statements made by employers in the stage of pre-filling in requests for authorisation for contracted work for 2025 have been broadened to statements made for entrances in relation to: special cases of contracted work, volunteering, authorisation for research, highly qualified contracted work, and intra-company transfers.”

The statement from the Italian Cabinet went on to note that the employment of seasonal foreign workers will be subject to the same requirements already in force in a trial manner for the current year.

The right of foreign workers to stay legally in Italy and temporarily work has been extended to those waiting for the conversion of their stay permits in addition to those waiting for the issuing of a first permit and those for renewal.

For the victims of illicit brokering and labor exploitation, as well as those for social protection and domestic violence, the length of their stay permits has been extended from six months to 12.

Those holding stay permits for social protection and victims of domestic violence have been granted the possibility to request state assistance in the form of what is known in Italy as an “inclusion allowance”.

The entrance of workers for family and social-healthcare assistance as well as those for the elderly and those with disabilities, has been placed outside the quotas mechanism.

In the first 12 months of legal employment in Italy, these workers can only work in their specified sector and can change employer only after authorization from the labor inspectorates.

The ministerial decree for foreign youths wanting to take part in volunteering projects for the general good and of social usefulness will, from now on, last three years and no longer only one.

On the issue of family reunification, the decree has raised the term limit for the issuing of the authorisation from 90 days to 150, in line with the nine months established by European regulations.

The possibility for the interior ministry to make use of the Italian Red Cross for the management of the Lampedusa hotspot has been extended by two years, to December 31, 2027.