Asylum Seekers Excluded from the Reception System in the COVID-19 Emergency Expulsions, Restrictions, Administrative Extensions and Access to the ʻSurfacingʼ Procedure

Abstract

This contribution analyses the main consequences of the emergency regulations caused by the pandemic crisis by COVID-19 on non-EU citizens and, in particular, on asylum seekers; from health risks to movement restrictions, from difficulties in accessing administrative procedures to the critical issues of the regulations on the emergence of irregular work referred to in Law Decree 34/2020, as an emergency and ineffective response to the closure of the borders, within the framework of the current Italian reception system, generally without long-term planning and with access preclusions for homeless, ‘sur place’ or ‘dublinati’ asylum seekers.