A/HRC/42/44/Add.1 73. Within the European Union, migration policies have become increasingly restrictive since 2015, when the European Agenda on Migration was launched. Until 2017, Italy continued to receive thousands of migrants but in the middle of 2018, the newly elected Government of Italy closed its borders to maritime arrivals. Currently, there are very limited opportunities for migrant workers to reach Italy through regular channels and to find regular work. 74. In the absence of adequate, sufficient and safe migration channels, irregular migration through smuggling and trafficking in human beings remains the principal option for those attempting to reach Italy. Given the lack of opportunities for regularizing their status, the asylum system has become the only vehicle for gaining temporary legal status for many migrants whose labour is in demand. The mismatch between regular migration pathways and labour demand, based on inadequate asylum procedures, reception systems and integration measures exposes migrants to exploitation and abuse. Migrants with an irregular status are trapped in a seasonal circuit of employment for years. 21 At the same time, exploitation affects both regular and irregular migrants equally. 75. A residence permit can only be renewed if the applicant has an employment contract, which risks pushing migrants further towards irregular channels and thus increasing their vulnerability to exploitation. Migrants who are unable to obtain a residence permit are easily blackmailed. Those who hold a permit are also often exploited through irregular or regular work in agriculture. 76. While asylum seekers wait for determination of their refugee status to be handed down, they are housed in temporary reception centres, which are government centres but managed by private entities. Depending on the region, the examination of an asylum claim, or of an appeal to the courts in the case of a negative decision, can take several months or even years. While housed in temporary accommodation facilities, often in substandard conditions, many asylum seekers are recruited by caporali. 77. As of December 2018, Law No. 132/2018 has transformed the former reception centres into the so-called system for the protection of beneficiaries of international protection and unaccompanied minors. These centres only accommodate beneficiaries of international protection and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.22 Asylum seekers who were already staying in the former reception centres can remain in the centres of the new system. Asylum seekers who lodged an application after the entry into force of the new law cannot be accommodated in the new centres and can only be accommodated in a socalled first reception centre.23 78. Until the entry into force of Law No. 132/2018, beneficiaries of international protection (refugee status and subsidiary protection) were granted a renewable five-year residence permit, while beneficiaries of humanitarian protection were granted a two-year permit. Under the new legislation, humanitarian protection was abrogated and replaced with other types of residence permits that have limited scope and duration and will therefore not provide the same level of protection. 79. The new law does not amend the grounds for granting special residence permits to victims of trafficking, violence or labour exploitation, as already provided for in the Consolidated Act on Immigration. Nevertheless, given that humanitarian permits were issued mainly in cases where international protection had been rejected, the new legislation will lead to an increase in the number of rejected asylum claims and to migrants losing their current status. Consequently, more migrants will become irregular, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation. More people will be likely to move to informal settlements owing to a lack of alternatives. Without a permit, the right to work will be lost and asylum seekers and beneficiaries of humanitarian protection will be excluded from the reception centres set up under the new system. Consequently, these categories of people will no 21 22 23 12 See Joint Ethical Trading Initiatives, “Due diligence in agricultural supply chains: counteracting exploitation of migrant workers in Italian tomato production” (December 2015). See European Migration Network, “Annual report on migration and asylum 2018” (May 2019), p. 24. Ibid.