Italy: Two men busted for migrant permit selling

Rome: The Italian police have busted an illegal trade in migrant entrance permits for migrants that allegedly raked in over a million euros for the two men involved, for whom precautionary measures have been ordered by the judicial authorities.

Two men have been accused in Italy of using fraudulent means to obtain the issuance of 141 permissions for the entrance of migrants onto Italian soil through procedures of a government decree regulating quotas. The permits were allegedly sold for thousands of euros to mostly Egyptian nationals, with overall earnings by the men totalling over a million euros.

The head of a tax assistance center in the city of Piacenza and a tax advisor from the same city were allegedly at the head of an international criminal network for the aiding and abetting of clandestine immigration, according to the Piacenza police.

The latter coordinated with the local prosecutor’s office and issued precautionary measures against the two Italian men.

The measures, which came into force on September 19, include a ban on residing in the Piacenza province, an obligation to report to the police, and a prohibition on involvement in activities linked to intermediation in the search for foreign manpower for the director of the tax assistance office and a ban on exercising his profession for the tax advisor.

The investigation — in which both the provincial immigration office and the provincial financial police took part in — started in February 2024, when a foreign national arrived at the Piacenza prefect’s office to understand whether the permit issued for his cousin, for which 4,000 euros had been paid, was valid.

The investigation found that false statements made by the tax advisor were used by the head of the tax assistance office for the filling out of forms for company directors who had asked him for assistance in finding manpower with the request of employment of non-EU nationals much larger than the actual requirements, ensuring them that — with larger requests than required — it would be easier to get the workers that they actually needed.

In some circumstances, they actually falsified the signatures of business owners to create fraudulent requests for permits. The owner of the tax assistance office had, in this way, received extra permits that he then sold.

A total of 18 businesses were targeted by the investigation. Many of the permits granted have been revoked by the prefect’s office, in this way preventing access to Italy for non-EU citizens who had made use of the criminal network.