The news about the wreck of a boat with 23 migrant citizens on board was published by all Italian newspapers. The wreck happened very close to Libya and past Monday and it caused 14 deaths and 3 dispersed citizens. The government and Home Office secretary, Giuseppe Pisanu, declared that the best solution to irregular migrations is opening more detention centres in Italy.
We interviewed Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo, Consorzio Italiano di solidarietà (Palermo).
“The government’s answers – apart from detention centres that are the easiest measure to reassure citizens against this assumed immigration emergency – are: repatriations in spite of all international conventions… and the government well know that many will die because of repatriations. Libya has recently communicated that more than 100 citizens died after October 2004 repatriations”
Vassallo Paleologo also talks about the position taken by Italian government:
“Italy is the first European country that co-operates with Libya, they organise repatriations together even of non Libby citizens without knowing whether these repatriated citizens are to be persecuted or not once back home.
Despite EU commission on human rights, irregular migrants are taken to Libya, which is not a very safe country if we consider the respect of human rights, and them they are moved to their countries of origin (Eritrea, Sudan, etc.).”
Another important matter is linked to migrant citizens’ identification:
“identifications can be influenced by political matters, citizens can be identified as coming from a country, which is not theirs.”
The problem of detention centres and their unlawfulness is the last topics we discussed together with Vassallo. Detention centres are concentration camps, they are overcrowded and they lack of everything: human dignity cannot there be possibly respected.
“This matter also calls the attention of left wing parties: they back in 1998 introduced the system of cpt with Turco-Napolitano law. They have to admit that they made a mistake and they need to prepare an alternative law on immigration management. I believe that the government’s arrogance is also cause by left wing parties silence on the need of closing all detention centres”.
