Make them work for free: Italy's interior minister supports forced labour for asylum seekers?

In an article from Africa Time, dated 12 May 2015, called 'Make them work for free' it is possible to read that Italian Interior's ministry has recently declared that asylum seekers should be made to work for free on projects of public interest while waiting for their refugee status, evoking a controversial decree issued several months ago. 

The author of this blog advocates for the right to work of asylum seekers to be legally granted as soon as possible after the lodging of their asylum claim. It facilitates their integration in the labour market once they are recognized refugee, or their return (with the money and experience earned in the host country). But we condemn any policy that would force asylum seekers to work for free as it amounts to forced labour that contradicts international human rights and labour law. Between 1983 and 1990 German authorities have conditioned the material support of asylum seekers to the acceptation of jobs, provoking adamant condemnations of the International Labour Organisation. 

International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention n° 29 defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”. Conditioning the financial or material support of asylum seekers to the realization of specific forced work could also be analyzed as an illegal attempt to dissuade asylum seekers to ask for asylum in Italy by lowering (already low) reception conditions.

Allowing and encouraging asylum seekers to do voluntary work (without any constraint and by providing them with an insurance) would certainly be more efficient to reach the goal officially stated by the Italian Ministry of Interior (increase their acceptance in the local community via their participation in projects of public interests). In Belgium, the 22 May 2014 law grants for example the access of foreigners and asylum seekers to voluntary work.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights prohibits forced labour. Article 1(2) of the ILO, Convention n° 122, provides that States parties shall ensure that "there is work for all who are available for and seeking work". Convention n° 122 refers to “full, productive and chosen employment” and contains the obligations of State parties to ensure the absence of forced labour. Similar interdictions of forced labour are contained in article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 5 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights that provides that 'No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour'.

We reproduce hereafter extracts from the article 'Make them work for free': 
"We must ask the municipalities to apply our directive and make migrants work for free... Rather than leave them with nothing to do, they should make them work," Angelino Alfano said, according to the Italian media.The statement came amid rising tensions in Italy over a massive influx of migrants and people fleeing war, who risked their lives and paid exorbitant sums to smugglers to sail on rickety, overcrowded boats across the Mediterranean to the Italian coast.The interior ministry's civil and immigration rights chief Mario Morcone said asylum seekers working for "the public good", for example on environmental projects, would only need their insurance covered. "The idea is to create a better rapport, and more acceptance" in society, Morcone said on television.