Italy’s underground economy grew by €15 billion in 2023, activists protest Italy-Libya migrant deal, and more news on Monday.
Italy’s underground economy grew by €15 billion in 2023
Italy’s underground economy grew by 7.2 percent in 2023 to reach more than €217 billion, according to a report published by national statistics agency Istat on Friday.
That translates into 10.2 percent of Italy’s GDP in 2023, representing a €15.1 billion increase on 2022 numbers.
Undeclared work grew twice as fast as work in the legal economy, the agency found.
The number of workers in the shadow economy was 3.1 million, an increase of over 145,000 compared to 2022.
Activists protest Italy-Libya migrant deal
Migrants and rights activists protested in Rome on Saturday against Italy’s migrant deal with Libya, a day after some 20 people were feared dead in the latest boat wreck in the Mediterranean.
Under a controversial 2017 deal renewed under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s hard-right government, Italy funds and trains the Libyan coastguard.
In return, Libya is expected to help stem the departure of migrants to Italy or return those already at sea back to Libya. That agreement is up for renewal next month.
During the protest, dozens of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa recounted what they endured in Libya, where reports of torture are widespread, and a minute of silence was held for those who died trying to cross the Mediterranean.
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Italian coastguard rescues dozens in Mediterranean
Italy’s coastguard said on Sunday it had rescued 91 people from a migrant boat adrift off the island of Lampedusa, but two men were found dead.
The boat was drifting some 16 nautical miles from the Italian island when it was located by an EU border agency plane, the coastguard said in a statement, adding it had dispatched two patrol boats.
“During the inspection of the below-deck areas, additional migrants in serious health conditions and two bodies, both male, were discovered,” it said.
The survivors – 85 men, one woman and five presumed minors – were disembarked and some taken to hospital by helicopter.
Italian news agency Ansa said that 14 of the migrants were in serious condition after inhaling petrol while below deck, with three requiring intubation.
With reporting from AFP.