A/HRC/4/19/Add.4 page 18 C. Legislation on and policies regarding migrants and asylum-seekers 41. According to the information received from civil society, there are approximately 3.2 million regular and 500,000 irregular immigrants.28 Illegal migration flows into Italy originate mainly from Asia (e.g. the Philippines, China), South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Africa (Nigeria, Ghana), Eastern Europe (Albania, Romania, the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Moldova, etc.) and the States of the former USSR. The most frequent routes are located along the Italian-Slovenian border and the Adriatic coast, particularly in Puglia and Sicily (the islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria), and there are also reported cases of entry by air via both large and small airports.29 42. During his visit to the reception centres on Lampedusa, the centre at Cassibile and the CPTA at Ragusa, the Special Rapporteur met with male and female immigrants and asylum-seekers from Morocco, Tunisia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Niger, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Colombia and the Philippines. At the Lampedusa centre, he witnessed the arrival of a boat with 11 Tunisian immigrants and followed their reception process. During these contacts the Special Rapporteur learned about the difficulties most of the immigrants arriving by sea had experienced in trying to reach the Italian coasts, either to escape from persecution in their countries of origin or to search for a better life. He also observed the living conditions in the centres and the system in place to ensure the rights of the immigrants. 43. The current “stay for work permit” scheme within an entry-quota system and the imprisonment of illegal migrants failing to abide by their expulsion orders were seriously questioned by different interlocutors. In their view, the Bossi-Fini Law fails to prevent migratory flows and leads to a situation where migrants find themselves in an illegal situation with no possible means of legalization, their choices being either to return to their countries of origin or to stay in Italy as a “clandestine”. Under the current legal framework, life as an illegal immigrant in Italy implies a greater exposure to poverty and various forms of discrimination and abuse, particularly in the labour market, and a high probability of imprisonment for failing to obey the injunction to leave the country. Being a legal migrant, on the other hand, entails a high probability of becoming illegal if the migrant loses his/her job, increasing vulnerability to abuse. Legality is not necessarily accompanied by integration in society, but often rather by discrimination in the housing, employment and education sectors. 28 The figure for regular migrants corresponds to the information contained in the Caritas 2005 Dossier and the 170,000 new residence permits provided in 2006, while the estimates on irregular immigration refer to the 370,000 requests under the “flows decree” and the official figure of 120,000 ordered but not implemented expulsions. 29 See Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants into Italy, pp. 79-80, analysing the phenomenon and suggesting remedies.