"We are greatly concerned about the norms that will make it more difficult of families of immigrants to reunite, an indispensable instrument for the complete integration of foreigners present in Italy," affirmed Franca Di Lecce, Director of the Refugee and Migrant Service of the FCEI, following the approval of two legislative decrees by the Council of Ministries on immigration matters. The first one modifies the discipline for the acknowledgement and the revocation of the status of refugee, the second introduces "requisites that are even tighter" for the right to unite families.

Referring to the opening of 10 new centers for identification and expulsion, ruled by the Council of Ministries, Di Lecce declared: "the measures adopted confirm an administration of the immigration phenomena that privileges repressive measures at the cost of a political plan for integration and legal admittance. Only politics able to favor the stabilization of immigrants would prevent the marginalization, the social tensions and the new racisms that run rampant through our country at the present time. We need, both as Christians and as citizens, to re-build an idea of being community together with those who today immigrate to be able to live in dignity; we need trust in a politics that aims at holding the values of legality based on social justice and solidarity."

From press service NEV - Notizie evangeliche, 30 September 2008