ROMA – In Italy, migrants and asylum seekers are being illegally disadvantaged of their liberty in detention centres that don’t meet worldwide requirements, writes Amnesty Worldwide. Detention ought to be distinctive and a measure of final resort, the group stresses. Nevertheless, Italian facilities are holding folks with critical psychological well being issues; individuals who wish to apply for asylum due to their sexual orientation or political activism however come from international locations the federal government has arbitrarily designated as “secure”; and other people fleeing gender-based violence or labor exploitation.
The choices of the Meloni authorities. In 2023, the Italian authorities adopted new initiatives that enhance the usage of migration-related detention, together with: plans to construct new detention facilities, extending the utmost detention time for repatriation to 18 months, and implementing “border procedures” that mechanically detain folks on the territory based mostly on their nationality, in contradiction to worldwide legislation which requires a person evaluation. Amnesty Worldwide visited two detention facilities, Ponte Galeria, in Lazio, and Pian del Lago, in Sicily, in April 2024. Each are holding folks from Tunisia, Iran, Georgia, Morocco, Peru, Egypt, Gambia and China, amongst others.
Punitive logic prevails. The group discovered that situations contained in the facilities aren’t in step with worldwide legal guidelines and requirements. Administrative detention associated to migration, actually, mustn’t have a punitive character and mustn’t impose prison-like situations. This isn’t the case in Italy, the place the services are naked, insufficient from a well being and security standpoint and the place extraordinarily restrictive behavioral measures are imposed.
The foundations contained in the facilities. Individuals can’t transfer freely even contained in the services: each motion have to be approved and escorted by the police. The beds consist of froth mattresses positioned on concrete. The loos are in horrible situations and typically with out doorways. The sunshine switches are turned on and off by the guards and the home windows are hermetically sealed. Private smartphones are prohibited.
Worse than prisons. Individuals are pressured to spend time in enclosed areas, in situations which might be in some ways worse than jail as a result of they’re denied even a modicum of autonomy. No actions are organized or proposed and this, mixed with the dearth of sure details about the longer term, results in monumental psychological harm amongst detained migrants.
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– 2024-07-04 23:07:24
