Vulnerability in Migration: The Applicability of European Recommendations, International Reports and Guidelines to the Italian System of Reception and Social Services

The European Parliament’s Report focuses on the integration processes for a particular category of refugees, considered as belonging to “vulnerable groups”, namely women seeking international protection and female refugees. Women seeking international protection or refugees, in fact, are bearers of demands and needs which, in part, are specific to all those people who, often forced to abruptly abandon their countries of origin, seek protection in host countries, bringing with themselves a heavy burden of persecution, war, violence and poverty. The humanitarian response along the routes of the eastern Mediterranean and the western Balkans has set as a priority the introduction of measures to prevent sexual and gender violence in all humanitarian activities. In all reports there is an emphasis on the urgent need to make operators aware of the risks inherent in the standard reception procedures, and to ensure urgently the specific training of staff in order to put in place specific procedures to prevent, identify and respond to sexual and gender violence. This last point, in particular, will be the subject of the in-depth examination, as follows: how (and whether) the recommendations and regulations are changing the reception conditions on the southern borders of Italy; whether and to what extent the institutions responsible for reception (first or second) are equipped to deal with this emergency; how training and professional development may intervene to ensure that operators in the field are able to cope adequately with this emergency.