The Vatican City State has enacted stiffer penalties on anyone entering its territory or violating its airspace without permission, threatening offenders with fines and jail time.
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ROME — The Vatican City State has enacted stiffer penalties on anyone entering its territory or violating its airspace without permission, threatening offenders with fines and jail time.
The Vatican has hiked both monetary sanctions and prison sentences for those who violate its tight security regulations, Catholic News Agency reported Wednesday.
Through a recent decree, signed by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, violators will face monetary fines ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 euros and prison sentences from one to four years.
The Vatican City State, the world’s only completely walled-in sovereign territory, has several entry points, all but one of which — the Saint Anna gate — are locked tight from dusk until dawn. The gates are manned by the Swiss Guard, with gendarmes carrying firearms not far off.
“Unless the act constitutes a more serious crime, anyone who enters the territory of Vatican City State with violence, threat, or deception is punished with imprisonment from one year to four years and a fine from € 10,000.00 to € 25,000.00,” the Italian-language text reads.
The document goes on to clarify that sneaking into Vatican territory is included in its understanding of entering by “deception.”
“Entry by fraudulent circumvention of the State’s security and protection systems or by evading border controls shall be deemed to have occurred ‘by deception,’” the decree elucidates.
Penalties will be more severe if illegal entry is carried out with the aid of weapons, dangerous substances, or as a group. In addition, they are increased by two-thirds if there is forced entry through the border control while driving a vehicle, the text stipulates.
In May, 2023, a driver stormed the border of the Vatican City State in his car, sailing through two security check points before eventually being apprehended.
The 40-year-old man was initially denied entry at the Vatican’s Saint Anna gate by the Pontifical Swiss Guard, after which he maneuvered his car away from the gate only to return at high speed, dispersing the sentries who leapt out of the vehicle’s path.
The new decree also introduces new provisions concerning unauthorized overflight of Vatican airspace, including with the use of drones, with penalties of up to three years in prison.
Last August, Pope Francis suggested that immigration laws should not be made stricter but rather looser, to allow more immigrants to cross international borders, adding that turning away migrants is a “grave sin.”
“Rather than more restrictive laws and the militarization of borders, what is needed is an expansion of secure and regular means of access,” the pontiff said during his weekly General Audience, “and a global governance of migrations based on justice, fraternity and solidarity.”
“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and by any means to turn away migrants – to turn away migrants,” the pope stated. “And this, when done with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
God “shares the drama of migrants, God is with them, with migrants, he suffers with them, with migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with migrants,” he stated, adding that the Lord is with our migrants, “not with those who turn them away.”
The push for more streamlined international migration has been a hallmark of the Francis papacy, while he has demonized as “xenophobic” those who call for stronger, less porous borders.
The pontiff has also insisted that the safety of migrants — legal or illegal — should take precedence over national security concerns and that they should not be subjected to collective deportations.
