美国国家公共电台 NPR Italy Surpasses Greece As Top Euro Destination For Asylum Seekers

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In 2016, Italy took over from Greece as the primary landing spot for migrants and refugees entering Europe. Nearly 180,000 people arrived in Italy, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa. That's left Italy trying to manage a surge in asylum 1-seekers. And as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports, most refugees do not understand the process.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE 3: In central Rome, the man who oversees 4 the national network of committees that process asylum requests sits at a desk covered with tall piles of folders 5. Angelo Trovato says each committee has three members representing police, local authorities and UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

ANGELO TROVATO: (Through interpreter) Each applicant 6 is interviewed by one committee member, but when it comes to deciding the destiny of an individual, the decision can't be made by a single person. It must be reached collectively.

POGGIOLI: As of early December, some 116,000 migrants had filed request for asylum this year - almost five times as many as in 2013. Trovato says the committees must judge whether, in their countries, applicants 7 face persecution 8 due to race, religion, ethnicity, membership in a special group or political views, as established by international conventions, or whether they're just fleeing poverty and therefore should be sent home.

TOURE SEKOU: (Speaking French).

POGGIOLI: This young man speaking French is from Guinea in West Africa. Asked his name, he says Toure Sekou. Maybe it is, but Sekou Toure is also the name of his country's first president. Like many migrants, this young man is fearful and diffident toward strangers. Asked to tell his story, he says I prefer to tell it to the interviewer; I don't like to talk too much.

The entire asylum process can take from a few months to more than a year. A positive result depends on how believable is the applicant's story. Barbara Boni is a lawyer who does pro 2 bono work with asylum-seekers. The newly arrived, she says, are often still in a state of shock from the perilous 9 sea-crossing. And those fleeing persecution or conflict often don't have documents to prove it.

BARBARA BONI: (Through interpreter) Asylum-seekers usually leave out details that they don't think are important. And if they're not prepared beforehand, they generally speak very little, and that hurts their chances.

POGGIOLI: For help navigating 10 the system and legal advice, migrants can come to this immigration services center in Rome. Volunteer Abiba Outtara has lived in Italy since 2007. Outtara was granted asylum thanks to medical records that proved she had been tortured in jail during civil strife 11 in her native Ivory Coast. Trained as a nurse, she says her job now resembles that of a therapist, carefully probing to discover the real dramas often buried deep inside many migrants. Most of them, she says, don't even know what asylum is.

ABIBA OUTTARA: (Through interpreter) Most of them have probably been living for years under a dictatorship, but they tell the interviewer a different story because they don't even know what persecution is.

POGGIOLI: With migrant arrivals surging, so are asylum rejections 12. This year, committees denied 57 percent of requests. Migrants can then file appeal with Italian courts, which generally are more lenient 13, but the entire process can take years. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.