Far from bringing solutions to ensure that similar massacres never happen again, the Cutro Decree is another milestone achieved from the Italian right wing government in its crusade against migration: the tragedy has become an opportunity to make rescue operations at sea even more complicated; to promulgate further restrictions on the rights of migrants and their access to protection, expanding the number of people who will be detained; and also removing important guarantees against expulsion from Italian territory.
This is not the only news, but Italy declares the state of emergency for the reception of refugees and migrants. A resolution that is enacted as for any other emergencies, as natural disasters, or pandemics. The state of emergency will last at least six months and an ordinance by the head of the Civil Protection will appoint a delegated commissioner (exactly as happens after a major earthquake). But this story could not end with the grand finale: the structures for the repatriation of those not entitled to stay in Italy (Centres of Permanence for Repatriation - CPR) will be increased and strengthened, reinforcing identification and expulsion activities- in other words de facto detention of migrants.
The budget law for 2023 has allocated approximately 42.5 million euros for the management and set-up, expansion, building, over the next three years, of 206 new CPRs for foreigners, who are denied a regular residence permit in Italy[1].
At the bottom-line are the bilateral agreements between states -the country of origin and destination- which seem to prioritise the actual cost of repatriation over fulfilment of migrants and detainees’ rights; and the appetite for a multi-million-euro business as the centres, in fact, are run by private entities[2].
The CPRs , as described by the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (Cild), are 'black holes', places where 'people walk on thin ice’, where isolation makes your rights, identity and person invisible to the rest of the world and to your own self, as the case of Moussa Balde, a young man from Guinea held in Ventimiglia with no documents and therefore locked up in the Turin CPR, where he killed himself in 2021[3].
For more than 20 years, CPRs has been running in Italy, holding behind fences foreigners, and treating them with brutality in absence of an actual crime, but simply based on an administrative violation: entering or staying in Italy without a permit. The Italian Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) has denounced the treatment and living conditions of migrants detained in CPRs, including the severe violations witnessed at the Turin Brunelleschi CPR.
Maurizio Veglio, member of ASGI, lawyer and lecturer at the Human rights and migration law clinic at the International University of Turin, gives voice to the invisibles with his book Malapena, which describes what happens to a foreigner who enters Brunelleschi. The first step to a life of imprisonment, described by Veglio, is sealed with a screwdriver, that the foreigner should insert in the camera of his/her cell phone until disabled. For the public administration, this is a 'protection' of the dignity and privacy of the detainees, in truth is shutting down any sort of control and testimonies over state actions. Reasons why only through the words of Veglio and many other activists, is possible to know and then to imagine how seven people can possibly share 50-square-metres, including bathrooms, with no separation between bedrooms and latrines.
This is what happens in the so called “ospedaletto” which is far from resembling any sort of hospital or medical clinic, is rather the place of confinement and isolation, which is illegal in CPRs, and inflicted in certain cases up till 5 months as mentioned by AGSI report Black Book: Turin CPR . This report along Malapena and other documents denounce the lack of services, inhumane and illegal treatment of detainees, the forced administration of psychopharmaceuticals, and the self-harm practices as a result of the inhumane and degrading living conditions in CPRs.
CPRs are a wound, a failure of legality and observation and promotion of civil rights and are not necessary. There are possible alternatives, such as investing and strengthening case management system, a solution which is cheaper and which guarantees services, as access to health, legal representatives, linguistic mediator, in the respect of dignity and rights.
But in reality, CPRs are just an example of today’s business as usual, a portrait of the contemporary economy satisfying key rules of thumb: diversification of portfolio, financialisation, and outsourcing of services.
The consequences of all this, seems to be deliberately ignored by the government, it’s voters and a large part of the people nationwide. Welcome to Italy.
[1] https://www.meltingpot.org/2023/04/i-cpr-devono-essere-chiusi-non-ampliati-cominciamo-da-macomer/ [2] https://altreconomia.it/oltre-40-milioni-di-euro-per-nuovi-cpr-il-governo-investe-su-un-modello-fallimentare/ [3] https://global.ilmanifesto.it/the-tragic-death-of-a-guinean-man-in-italian-custody/
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