ActionAid and Openpolis publish new report on the reception system in Italy

A new report by ActionAid Italia, The Border, Everywhere, highlights the continued reliance of Italy’s asylum reception system on emergency measures, despite migration being a long-term structural phenomenon. It was published  as part of the Centri d'Italia project, in collaboration with the Openpolis Foundation, 

Drawing on updated 2024 data from Centri d'Italia (an independent monitoring platform for reception centres in Italy), the report examines trends across extraordinary reception centres (CAS), facilities within the Reception and Integration System (SAI) and first reception centres.

The findings challenge narratives portraying migration as an 'invasion', noting that just over 134,000 asylum seekers and refugees were accommodated in Italy at the end of 2024, a figure lower than that recorded in 2018 and indicative of a relatively stable trend.

However, the report argues that the reception system continues to operate according to an emergency logic. More than 70% of residents are accommodated in Extraordinary Reception Centres (CAS), facilities originally intended as temporary solutions when ordinary reception capacity is exhausted. According to the report, this temporary model has effectively become permanent.

The analysis also highlights a significant expansion of first reception facilities. Between 2021 and 2024, available places in these centres increased by more than 80%, rising from approximately 3,500 to 6,300 places. The growth of facilities managed by for-profit operators has been particularly notable, with available places more than doubling from around 7,000 in 2022 to nearly 14,800 by the end of 2024.

The report further points to the continued concentration of reception in large-scale facilities. More than one-third of reception centres now have a capacity exceeding 50 places, reinforcing a long-standing trend towards larger structures rather than smaller, community-based accommodation models.

According to ActionAid and Openpolis, these developments illustrate a reception system increasingly characterised by centralisation, large-scale facilities, and emergency management approaches, despite the stable nature of migration flows and the need for sustainable, long-term reception and integration policies.