ARIANNA BRETSCHNEIDER

Diritto d'asilo e status di rifugiato politico nell'ordinamento italiano

218

Maggio-Agosto 2008

Anno LXXIII    n. 2

Summary - The present work deals with the right of asylum and the status of political refugee in the Italian legislation, with the aim to highlight its gaps and contradictions, especially in relation to obligations under international law.The right of asylum is enshrined in Article 10 of the Italian Constitution and the  status of political refugee is enshrined in the Geneva Convention of 1951 on Refugees (ratified by Italy with law n. 722/1954).It is of immediate perception that the requirement for the right of asylum  (the effective hindrance to the exercise of democratic freedoms and rights) is radically different from the one for the status of refugees (the wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion). Despite this difference, Italian legislation provides only for the procedure to obtain the status of refugee and not for the one to obtain the recognition of the right of asylum, even though article 10 of Constitution delegates ordinary lawyer to regulate this matter. So aliens who come in Italy and need protection have just one way: ask for the status of refugee. The consequence is that a person who has the requirements asked for the right of asylum - constitutional guaranteed - and not the different ones for the refugee status, won’t get any protection (apart from, maybe, different forms of sussidiary protection). This contrasts with fundamental constitutional and international principles, and makes necessary that the legislative authority takes action in order to  fill up this gap, especially considering the increasing migration affecting our country in the last few years.