Statewatch News Online: Italy/north Africa: Concern over the violation of rights of migrants who were refused entry, expelled, held in detention centres, asylum seekers and foreign workers
28 March 2012
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Italy/north Africa
Concern over
the violation of rights of migrants who were refused entry, expelled,
held in detention centres, asylum seekers and foreign workers
A document produced by ASGI (Associazione di Studi Giuridici
sull'Immigrazione) on 12 August 2011 raises several concerns
over the treatment of migrants who arrived in Italy as a result
of political turmoil in the north African countries of Egypt,
Libya and Tunisia since December 2010.
The first part of the six-page document focuses on the denial
of the rights of defence, detention outside of the conditions
set out in legislation, problems concerning requests submitted
before judicial authorities for detention periods to be extended,
collective and deferred refoulements. It highlights the existence
of significant obstacles to the exercise of the right to defence
for migrants who arrived in Lampedusa and Sicily, particularly
insofar as asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors are concerned,
in spite of the presence of bodies working to provide assistance
in the framework of the interior ministry-funded 'Praesidium'
project. One problem is the routine detention of those who disembark,
sometimes for long periods, without a formal judicial decision
or legal basis, both in the Contrada Imbriacola early reception
and aid centre on Lampedusa and in other centres in Sicily (Pozzallo,
Rosolini, Porto Empedocle, and the Barone barracks on the island
of Pantelleria). Similar problems apply to migrants transferred
to the temporary CIEs (identification and expulsion centres)
set up in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta), Palazzo San Gervasio
(Potenza) and Kinisia (Trapani) in execution of prime ministerial
ordinance no. 3935, dated 21 April 2011. The statement notes
that the Palazzo San Gervasio centre has been shut because it
did not fulfil requirements for this kind of facility, and procedural
irregularities like the collective validation of detention measures
on 9 June 2011 by a justice of the peace [a lay judge] are taking
place, thus eluding the requirement for an assessment of individual
circumstances in depriving people of their freedom, especially
noteworthy in the case of minors in the detention area.
The statement also raises the matter of justices of the peace's
authorisation to extend the detention period in CIEs (there has
been tension in detention centres nationwide after the maximum
length of detention was raised to 18 months by law no. 129 of
2 August 2011 following an ECJ ruling that deemed the routine
imprisonment of "irregulars" after their status was
criminalised unlawful), stressing that the right to defence,
compliance with deadlines and assessment of individual circumstances
should be guaranteed. Furthermore, detention should be used as
a last resort and cannot continue if there is no "reasonable
prospect" of a foreigner being repatriated and the authorities
should also document what steps have been taken to enact a repatriation.
An example is provided to highlight malpractice in the case of
Tunisians who arrived since February 2011 and are held in Turin's
CIE. The police chief's office (questura) requested that their
detention period be extended.
It also wrote to the justice
of the peace in order to avoid a possible rejection due to the
lack of specific details on individual cases and proceedings
concerning them to explain that repatriations are being managed
by the central directorate for immigration and the border police
in association with the public security department of the interior
ministry, with assistance from the Tunisian embassy in Rome.
Thus, the mere personal details of those held and references
to charter flights used for repatriations should be deemed sufficient
to extend the detention period for the people concerned, "to
allow the central directorate to complete its complex work...
and not to thwart good relations with Tunisia". ASGI argues
that this constitutes an unusual interference in a justice of
the peace's work, all the more so as they are asked to consider
"good relations" with another state in reaching a decision;
that the extension be motivated by the treatment of Tunisian
detainees as a category, rather than basing it on personal circumstances;
and, among other concerns, that it enables arbitrariness and
allows the public administration to exert pressure on justices
of the peace. A further issue noted in the statement and seldom
reported, is that Egyptians arriving in Italy are being periodically
subjected to collective refoulements in cooperation with the
Egyptian consulate. Associations seeking to assist migrants find
it difficult (if not impossible) to contact Egyptian nationals,
and the presence of consular staff in airports deters them from
applying for asylum.
The statement then examines the situation of unaccompanied minors,
determination of their age and their access to asylum procedures,
noting that times to establish their age are growing longer,
and de facto resulting in many minors turning 18 before they
are able to submit an asylum application, thus denying them the
benefits attached to their condition as minors. It highlights
the risk that unaccompanied minors may be detained alongside
adults in Lampedusa, while there are delays in informing minor's
courts and tutelary judges about them, and they are sometimes
transferred into "half-way facilities", without having
had the opportunity to apply for international protection, an
option that they should be guaranteed.
ASGI argues that refusals
of entry often intervene before those who have disembarked have
had effective access to asylum procedures in centres including
Lampedusa, meaning that they may end up in CIEs (from where attempts
will be made to repatriate them) rather than in CARAs (reception
centres for asylum seekers). A large CARA was set up in Mineo
(Catania) in an interior ministry initiative that was labelled
the "Village of Solidarity" in which an estimated 1,800
asylum seekers have been waiting for months, some of them transferred
from other facilities. ASGI recalls that it called for its closure
on 28 July 2011 after protests and a forceful intervention by
the police, and that the work of the territorial commission to
assign refugee status may result in claims taking over a year
to be resolved in spite of resorting to practices whose "lawfulness"
is "questionable" to speed up the process. High rates
of denial of protection have resulted in tensions rising, fighting
and protests in the CARA in Salina Grande (Trapani), where the
situation was previously calm. ASGI warns that delays, rejections
and migrants' uncertainty over their future may prime a spiral
of violence while, paradoxically, 40,000 people have been reported
to Agrigento court for the offence of illegal entry and residence,
and this will entail both costs and a greater workload. The only
positive development noted by ASGI is the setting up of four
new territorial commissions to evaluate protection requests in
Mineo, Verona, Milan and Bari, with possible new additions in
Trapani, Florence, and perhaps Crotone. The inadequacy of the
system for managing asylum seekers leads ASGI to call for the
closure of CARAs, especially the largest ones, and to promote
a de-centralised system, increasing the number of territorial
commissions, in closer coordination with the national system
for the protection of asylum seekers, among other measures.
To end, ASGI stresses the "mass" practice of irregular
employment in seasonal agricultural work, which largely concerns
"irregulars" and asylum seekers awaiting the outcome
of their procedure, particularly in the south (Apulia, Campania,
Calabria and Sicily). Over one year on from disorders in Rosarno
that led to the evacuation of the black African workforce in
January 2010, it appears that inspections by the employment ministry
are unable to control seasonal employment in agriculture, favouring
exploitation. In this context, ASGI laments Italy's failure to
transpose the European Parliament and European Council Directive
2009/52/EC of 18 June 2009 on minimum norms concerning sanctions
and measures to be adopted against employers who employ third-country
nationals in an irregular situation.
23.8.11
Source:
ASGI, "Documento
del 12 agosto 2011. Grave preoccupazione per le ripetute violazioni
del diritto nei riguardo degli stranieri respinti, espulsi o
trattenuti nei CIE, dei richiedenti asilo e dei lavoratori stranieri"
(in Italian)
Statewatch News online | Join Statewatch news e-mail list | Download a free sample issue of Statewatch Journal
© Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals/"fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.
Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.