The Black Book of Immigration Detention in Italy

Guest post by Fatima Z. El harch and Fabio Balli. Fatima Z. El harch is a student at the International University College of Turin. Her main research interests relate to cultural pluralism, human rights, EU and Italian migration policies. Fabio Balli advocates for solidarity to counter an economy of impoverishment. He authored “Global crises, democratic solutions – within days” as well as a research notebook on open science. Fabio is affiliated to the International University College of Turin. With colleagues from the Human Rights & Migration Law Clinic, they created the research notebook Duty of care in Italy-France migration documenting migrants’ conditions in Ventimiglia-Menton and Oulx-Briançon.

Ιn 2019, only 104,500 “irregular arrivals” were reported in the European Union, as opposed to media and politicians’ narratives about the “floods” of migrants arriving and overwhelming EU member-states. This is almost 30 times less than the number of residence permits granted, in an area that is home to 447 million people.

In Italy, undocumented migrants, as well as any person unable to present proof of their identity, can be detained in Pre-Removal Detention Centres (CPR) for up to four months according to the Consolidated Immigration Act (art. 14), before being deported to another country. In Italy there are ten CPRs and four hotspots, located near the Mediterranean sea, which together can hοld over 700 people, a number which regularly fluctuates. Their detention is ordered by the police, and in most cases, over 95% in the CPR of Turin, it is validated by a lay judge. The validation of the legitimacy of the police measure should take place following a hearing in which the judge performs an individualised assessment. According to the Italian Supreme Court, this entails “full judicial control, and not merely external control, which would be the case if the validation judge could limit himself to ascertaining the existence of an expulsion order whatever”. Yet, more than often judges simply validate the police decision without assessing each case individually. For example, in Turin, a survey revealed that four in five hearings last a maximum of five minutes.

The report Fleeing misery, seeking refuge in Italy, being destroyed by the state: when Europe denies the human (Black Book), also accessible in Italian and French, was recently published by the Association for Juridical Studies on Migration (ASGI). The report documents the inhumane living conditions of people detained in immigration detention facilities, despite excessive funding allocated to migration policies: since 2015, Italy alone has benefited from 500,000 € each day from the European Union.

Six young adults dead under Italian “care”

In the last two years, six men have died in Italian CPRs: Ad Harry (20 years), Hossain Fasal (32 years), Aymen Mekni (33 years), Vakhtang Enukidze (38 years), Orgest Turia (28 years), and Moussa Balde (23 years). All of them had fled from political instability, uncertain economic prospects, social insecurity, or other personal issues in the hope of building a decent life for themselves and their families in Italy.

“I want to stay in Italy because in this country I could taste how beautiful life can be,” said Moussa Balde in a video interview.

Moussa’s life turned upside down on Sunday May 9, 2021, when he was assaulted and beaten up on the streets of Ventimiglia by three strangers (read our research notebook). Released from hospital, the young man was sent to the head of the police in Imperia, who ordered his deportation from Italy. Moussa Balde was then taken to Turin’s detention centre, regardless of his mental and physical health. Additionally, the director of the CPR decided to send Moussa Balde to the “Ospedaletto” (Little Hospital) without further explanation. This consists of twelve coop-like cages used for isolating detainees for variable periods of time, either for health reasons (which would justify their unfitness for detention) or for purely punitive reasons. On Sunday May 23, 2021, Moussa Balde was found dead in his cell.

Moussa Balde is not the only person being pushed to their limits by public authorities: migrants detained in Turin’s CPR have spent months of continuous isolation without the possibility to know the reasons, explain themselves, or appeal this decision. Contrary to prisons, solitary confinement in CPRs is neither provided for, nor regulated by law. Faisal Hussein, died in July 2019, after nearly six months of uninterrupted isolation. It is important to note that public authorities do not report suicide attempts or self-harm incidents in CPRs. However, our legal support clinic counted 156 episodes of self-harm in 2011 alone. In 2018, the medical director of the CPR described such behaviors as “childish, immature acts [...] They do it like that, just for fun…”.

Systematic abuses in CPR: incompetence or evil?

Over the years, a number of monitoring actors, lawyers, humanitarian organizations, activists and other civil society groups – as presented in the Black Book – have been criticising the situation described above. Yet, the authorities seem to be ignoring their calls to comply with the law and the values defined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The continuity of abuses cannot be explained solely by a few public servants misbehaving; it rather shows an institutional culture of systemic oppression towards people deemed of “lesser value.”

For example, the Italian Minister of Interior, as a result of Moussa’s death, ordered the (temporary) closure of the “Ospedaletto” in Turin on September 8, 2021, four years after the first critical report from the National guarantor of the rights of persons detained or deprived of liberty. This report pointed out the inhumane living conditions of all people detained in Turin’s CPR, describing in particular the “Ospedaletto” as having “an overall effect similar to that of an old section of a zoo”. It also highlighted that the “widespread [...] use of solitary confinement for purely disciplinary reasons in the lack of a specific legal framework defining the procedure, with the due guarantees of cross-examination, the duration of the measure and the possibility of appeal, appears to be very critical.” (reports for 2017, 2018, 2019-20, 2021). Other critical concerns such as the systematic violation of the right to medical care and access to decent food have been pointed out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

An urgent need for independent oversight

As reported by the Association for Juridical Studies on Migration (ASGI) as well as by the Coalizione Italiana Libertà e Diritti civili (CILD) and other civil-society organizations, it is precisely the whole system of immigration detention which is flawed. ASGI presents four recommendations in its Black Book that could restore minimum standards of decency and legality at Turin’s CPR:

• The closure of unofficial spaces within detention facilities such as the “Ospedaletto”;
• ​​The restoration of detainees’ right to communicate and meet with family members and acquaintances;
• Ensuring that the assessment for an individual’s fitness to be detained is carried out by doctors from a public health institution with the presence of psychiatrists and psychologists;
• The application of minors’ age assessment, as provided by current legislation

According to the Italian Constitution, administrative detention in the country is enforced with a decision by a criminal judge. However, in the case of migrants, a lay judge is being employed for this process. Former President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, denounced this as “a ‘sub-system’ of sanctions” inconsistent with the common principles of the rule of law. Involving lay judges rather than criminal judges in such a process could be seen as a political intention to legitimate or normalise violence inside immigration detention centres. Overall, the Black Book documents the systemic oppression of migrants detained.

Migrants, documented or not, are not only looking for a better future, they also bring the richness of another culture, a fresh perspective on the world, often shaped by a journey none of us would imagine. They provide us with diversity, with a will to contribute to the collective that we should all support and value. Instead, of investing in building more and more detention centres, some of the 1.044 billion of euros that Italy has received to cope with migration could be dedicated to empowering undocumented migrants so that they contribute to the collective wellbeing.

Note: We would like to thank Avv. Maurizio Veglio and Haiyang Kong for their contribution to this piece.

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How to cite this blog post (Harvard style) 

El harch, F. Z. and Balli, F. (2022) The Black Book of Immigration Detention in Italy. Available at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2022/01/black-book [date]