Being one of the biggest cities of the Central-North part of Italy, Bologna hosts an important regional Hub, called “Centro Mattei”, where an EASO expert, caseworker and cultural mediators are based. These officials support their Italian colleagues in registering national asylum applications, as well as with appeals and Dublin cases.
With an average of ten interviews scheduled and performed every day, the Questura deals with a variety of nationalities of applicants, ranging from Eritrea and Central-African states to Cuba, Brazil and even China.
In addition to a caseworker, a Swiss expert has been deployed with EASO since mid-September and is supported in carrying out registrations by two Cultural Mediators covering Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic, English, Spanish and French.
“Cooperation amongst us and with the Italian authorities is very good” the caseworker states. “We support each other in dealing with issues, advice for complicate cases, share information and good practices. The expert’s point of view is very welcomed because it can provide specific experiences from his own country.”