The measure would aim at allowing irregular workers to fill a labor shortage caused by the coronavirus emergency in some economic sectors, and especially in agriculture.

"Together with the ministries of Agriculture and Labor, we are assessing the positions of undocumented workers, both Italians and foreigners," Lamorgese told senators in a hearing to the upper house.

"This issue arises from the need to find a specific solution to the problems concerning agriculture and fishing industry, in order to remedy the labor shortages in those sectors without affecting national production," she explained.

The first to openly talk about regularizing at least some of the estimated 600,000 undocumented migrants living in the country had been Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova in an op-ed on Il Foglio newspaper last week.

"Figures are clear: the regular foreign labor force in Italy's agriculture counts on about 400,000 units (workers); for ten years, Italians have fallen and foreigners have increased," Bellanova explained.

"Today, due to the (coronavirus) emergency, many have returned to their countries of origin, and we are dealing with a vacuum estimated in about 350,000 and with a need for skills."

She argued regularizing undocumented migrants -- many of which working in the fields of southern Italy, and living in unsafe makeshift settlements -- would be a matter of both economy and health safety.

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