Refugee protection and international migration: a review of UNHCR's operational role in southern Italy

This review is one of a series examining UNHCR’s operational involvement
in mixed migration situations, undertaken by UNHCR’s Policy Development and
Evaluation Service (PDES). They follow a commitment made at the High
Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges in December 2007 to ‘review the
effectiveness of (UNHCR’s) interventions in the areas of international protection and
mixed migration, in order to learn lessons from its experience and to ensure that they
are incorporated in its policy making and programming processes.’

This review focuses on UNHCR’s operational engagement in Italy in the
framework of the Praesidium Project since 2006. It seeks to evaluate the extent to
which such engagement has enhanced access to international protection for refugees
arriving irregularly by sea in Italy, and to assess UNHCR’s contribution to collective
efforts to ensure a humane, equitable and rights-based approach to migration
management. It seeks to analyse the sustainability and future prospects of the
Praesidium model in Italy, and to identify whether the model is indeed an example of
‘best practice’ that could be applied in other contexts.

The methodology included a detailed document review, followed by
interviews at headquarters and by telephone. A ten-day field mission to Rome, Sicily,
Lampedusa and Crotone was conducted in late July 2009. Interviews and focus
group discussions were held with asylum seekers and refugees, a range of
government officials at national and sub-national levels, Praesidium partners, NGOs,
lawyers, UNHCR staff and representatives of organizations managing reception
centres. Preliminary findings were discussed with UNHCR staff in Rome during a
debriefing at the end of the mission.