This review is one of a series examining UNHCR’s operational involvement in mixed migration situations, undertaken by UNHCR’s Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES). They follow a commitment made at the High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges in December 2007 to ‘review the effectiveness of (UNHCR’s) interventions in the areas of international protection and mixed migration, in order to learn lessons from its experience and to ensure that they are incorporated in its policy making and programming processes.’ This review focuses on UNHCR’s operational engagement in Italy in the framework of the Praesidium Project since 2006. It seeks to evaluate the extent to which such engagement has enhanced access to international protection for refugees arriving irregularly by sea in Italy, and to assess UNHCR’s contribution to collective efforts to ensure a humane, equitable and rights-based approach to migration management. It seeks to analyse the sustainability and future prospects of the Praesidium model in Italy, and to identify whether the model is indeed an example of ‘best practice’ that could be applied in other contexts. The methodology included a detailed document review, followed by interviews at headquarters and by telephone. A ten-day field mission to Rome, Sicily, Lampedusa and Crotone was conducted in late July 2009. Interviews and focus group discussions were held with asylum seekers and refugees, a range of government officials at national and sub-national levels, Praesidium partners, NGOs, lawyers, UNHCR staff and representatives of organizations managing reception centres. Preliminary findings were discussed with UNHCR staff in Rome during a debriefing at the end of the mission.
