Despite the solidarity of European leaders and ordinary citizens alike, the former Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, decided to ban the Protection System for Asylum Seekers (SPRAR) managed by the municipality of Riace. Now, the Judges of the State Council declare that Salvini did not have the jurisdiction to close the reception project and to deport the migrants. 

THE RIACE MODEL

The rural Italian village in Calabria hit international headlines after the town’s mayor, Domenico Lucano, decided to give abandoned homes to refugees coming from Africa. After the landing of Kurdish refugees in 1998, Lucano made an opportunity out of the progressive emptying and depopulation of the municipality, welcoming migrants and promoting the economic revival of the town at the same time. 

In 2016, Fortune magazine named Lucano one of the world’s greatest leaders for providing job training to the migrants and giving new life to Riace. Since then, the Riace immigration model has been studied worldwide for its innovative and multicultural approach. 

THE FALL OF THE “LAND OF WELCOME”

After Matteo Salvini came to power as Interior Minister of the League, a right-wing political party in Italy, he vilified the Riace administration for its immigration system. The mayor was charged with embezzlement of public funds and illegal immigration for suggesting marriages as a solution to immigration problems. The investigation led to SPRAR budget cuts, to which the mayor protested with hunger strikes until he was later arrested and banned from Riace.

The events in Riace lead to a social rift on the local and national level, leading to an “Italian first” election victory with anti-immigration sentiments at its political core, and the populist government implementing aggravated laws against immigration. Meanwhile, the National Public Broadcasting Company cancelled the screenplay on Riace’s immigration project from its schedule and the Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, under armed guard after mafia’s threats against his life, claimed that the executive was “taking the first step towards the definitive transformation of Italy from a democracy to an authoritarian state”.

One thing is clear: despite the protests, migrants have been transferred away from their homes to migrants centres, and the shops they once occupied are now shuttered. Moreover, the split in the Riace community has grown even deeper. After the victory of the League party in the local elections, the new administration replaced the famous sign at the entrance of the town—“Riace, Land of Welcome”—with a new one dedicated to the local patron Saints Cosimo and Damiano.

THE UNLAWFUL DECISION TO DEPORT MIGRANTS

The turning point came in 2019 when The Territorial Administrative Court of Reggio Calabria declared the conduct of Interior Minister Salvini as unlawful—a deliberation that was later confirmed by the judges of State Council in June 2020. Two years after the decision to deprive Riace of SPRAR funding, the State Council confirmed that Salvini should not have deported the migrants nor cut off the funds that the administration needed in order to proceed with the reception project. In particular, Salvini did not specify the irregularities that he claimed that he had found. The judges also purported that “the Riace model was absolutely praiseworthy in its intentions and also in the results of the integration process”. When former Mayor Lucano was asked how he was feeling about the decision, he said that, “Salvini’s racial hatred is the same as that of the American white supremacists [...] We must all learn a lesson from Black Lives Matter, and we must also react here in Italy”.

Martina holds a Bachelor’s in Communication and a Master's in International Relations. She has experience working as news reporter and press officer and her interests focus on equality issues and immigration laws. Her goal is to provide proper education on these matters.

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