Five defendants, third-country nationals from Pakistan and Bangladesh, were incriminated by the Police Headquarters for providing false declarations of hospitality to asylum seekers who then submitted these declarations together with documentation for applications for renewal of their temporary residence permits or applications for asylum, documentation requested by the Police Headquarters. 

The Criminal Court of Treviso noted that the criminal proceedings were initiated based on alerts received from the Immigration Office of the Police Headquarters of Treviso regarding false declarations of hospitality and investigations revealed that the applicants assisted asylum seekers in obtaining counterfeited declarations of hospitality in exchange of money. The Public Prosecutor called for 8 months of imprisonment.

The court noted that the use of false communications of hospitality did not constitute a violation of article 5 (8a) of Legislative Decree 286/98, since there is no legislative provision that requires the applicant for international protection to provide a valid declaration of hospitality when submitting an application for international protection and/or renewal of temporary residence permit. The court highlighted that the law provides that falsification of documents is punishable only in cases of falsification of documents aimed at issuing an entry or re-entry, residence permit or residence card, but according to Legislative Decree 25/2008 the competent Police Headquarters office are required to request the indication of a residence exclusively for the sole purpose of identifying the competent Headquarters to receive the application for international protection. 

Consequently, the Criminal Court of Treviso acquitted the five defendants considering the absence of the crime presented by the Public Prosecutor. 

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