Customs Patrol sinks dinghy
01 August 2002
The Albanian survivors of a collision between a dinghy and an Italian customs patrol boat in Albanian waters on the night of 21 July 2002 have accused customs officers of deliberately sinking the dinghy, that was carrying 36 people to Italy. The death of two persons has been acknowledged by Italian authorities after their bodies were found, and a further 15 are alleged to be missing by survivors. Fatyon Hysi, one of the survivors, said that:
The customs patrol boat was playing cat and mouse.. They followed us with their lights switched off, and when they arrived at about 100 metres distance from the dinghy they suddenly switched their lights on. They continued to follow us, overtaking us and crossing our route.. the patrol boat continued its game for a good half hour, until it struck us. It hit the rear end of the dinghy, smashing one of the engines and causing many of us to fall overboard.
Reform of Italian immigration legislation (see Statewatch vol 11 no 6 and this issue) allows Italian police or customs patrols to stop, search and, if evidence of involvement in the smuggling of migrants is found, to confiscate vessels and lead them into an Italian port. These powers also apply to navy ships, and may be carried out in national waters and even outside them, "in nearby areas", without further specification. There has been an Italian police presence in Albania aimed at preventing illegal immigration for some time, with Italian carabinieri posted in Albanian ports and a base on the island of Saseno opposite the Albanian port of Valona. At a time when Italy, Greece, Spain and the UK are proposing, at an EU level, to conduct joint patrols of the Mediterranean Sea, it is worth recalling that in 1997, an Italian navy frigate sank the Kater i Rades, a ship laden with migrants, while it conducted aggressive manoeuvres and lost control in the rough sea, reportedly leading to over 100 deaths. More recently, on 7 March 2002, over 50 people are believed to have died in a shipwreck that led to criticism of the Italian navy after a nearby navy ship refused to take part in the rescue (see Statewatch vol 12 no 2).
Associazione Senzaconfine, press statement, 23.7.02; Corriere della Sera 24.7.02
ITALY/ALBANIA
Agreement on sentencing in country of origin
An agreement between the Italian and Albanian governments signed by the respective Justice Ministers, Roberto Castelli and Spiro Peci, on 23 April 2002 will allow judicial authorities in either country to pass sentences on nationals of the other country. The agreement allows the country of origin to imprison nationals who have been sentenced in the other country "if the sentenced person finds him/herself in its territory", as would be the case following expulsion - this is even before documents concerning the sentence passed against them have been made available by the sentencing country, or a subsequent decision has been made on the basis of those documents.
Although the agreement is couched in terms of reciprocity, it is aimed at expelling Albanians sentenced in Italy to serve their prison terms in Albania, alongside "illegal" Albanian migrants who have been expelled, in accordance with the Italian government's plans to combat illegal immigration and prison overcrowding. In fact, the Italian Justice Ministry commented on the agreement by noting that it will reduce overcrowding in Italian prisons, as well as having the humanitarian goal of allowing prisoners to serve their sentences in their country of origin, near their families.
Nonetheless, the text of the Italian-Albanian additional agreement to the 1983 European Convention on Extradition states (Art 2.3) that "for the execution of the sentence as described in this Article the agreement of the sentenced person is not necessary", a notion that is reiterated in Article 3 in relation to sentences that have been passed, or administrative measures whose effects include expulsion or police accompaniment to the border. The opinion<