The CIE Archipelago – Inquiry into the Italian Centres for Identification and Expulsion | Medici per i Diritti Umani

The CIE Archipelago – Inquiry into the Italian Centres for Identification and Expulsion

Do the Italian Centres for Identification and Expulsion (CIEs) truly demonstrate respect for the dignity and basic human rights of the migrants detained within them? Fifteen years from its creation, what is the true effectiveness of the administrative detention system in combating irregular immigration? Do other, less harsh tools to counter this phenomenon exist? Last week, Medici per i Diritti Umani – MEDU (Doctors for Human Rights Italy) has presented its report, The CIE Archipelago: Inquiry into the Italian Centres for Identification and Expulsion (Infinito Edizioni) at the Foreign Press offices in Rome. This study was born of the desire to find answers to some basic questions, always being aware of the fact that the administrative detention of migrants issue goes well beyond its humanitarian aspects, concerning as it does the safeguarding of the core values of a country’s civic existence. The investigation, which was undertaken over the course of a year, is the first undertaken by an NGO through systematic visits to all existing CIEs following the 2011 extension of detention times to 18 months. In addition to monitoring the centres, the report also incorporates statistical data analysis and eyewitness accounts from detainees and CIE personnel. Additionally, part of this report is devoted to analysing the issues presented by the centres for the detention of migrants throughout other European countries which have experienced strong migratory influxes.

The evidence gathered confirms in an unequivocal fashion the blatant inadequacy of the administrative detention system in safeguarding the dignity and basic human rights of the migrant detainees such as the right to accessible healthcare (summary table of critical issues). Additionally, from a purely utilitarian perspective, the Italian CIE system proves itself a failure by being of negligible impact and almost no effectiveness in the fight against irregular immigration. The extension of the maximum period of detention to eighteen months has not led to any significant improvement in the effectiveness of the repatriation system, while at the same time dramatically worsening the atmosphere of tension within the centres. Also the efficiency of the entire CIE apparatus appears at the very least dubious. Even if we disregard the very high human cost which the CIEs entail, the sum total of the economic costs necessary to ensure the management, surveillance, maintenance and repair of these facilities does not appear commensurate to the modest results obtained in contrasting irregular immigration.

The CIEs therefore confirm themselves to be facilities congenitally incapable of safeguarding respect for an individual’s dignity and basic human rights. This inadequacy is related to the CIEs’ modes of operation and structural characteristics, which are shown to be flawed on a basic level independently of the different managing authorities which run the individual CIEs. Indeed, the function of the managing authorities seems to be limited to that of being more or less efficient wheels within an unjust machine – that of the Centres for Identification and Expulsion – of which they cannot change (save for in a very negligible manner) the basic critical issues.

Medici per i Diritti Umani therefore asks for: 1) the closure of all Centres for Identification and Expulsion currently operating on Italian soil, due to their blatant structural and functional inadequacy; 2) the reduction of an alien’s detention for repatriation purposes to an exceptional, or at the very least completely residual, measure.

MEDU also believes that the obtainment of the two aforementioned objectives must take place alongside the adoption of new means for managing irregular immigration, distinguished by respect of human rights and an increased rationality and effectiveness. In suggesting some possible alternatives to the current CIE system, Medici per i Diritti Umani has believed it necessary to refer to some basic strategies: the diversification of responses based on category of persons, the gradual and proportional nature of action, and the encouragement of cooperation between immigrants and authorities. In the past, Italy has been at the forefront of the abolition of closed institutions wrongly considered to be indispensable, such as mental hospitals, by carrying out courageous reforms (not without some difficulties) such as those concerning psychiatric aid. The closure of the Centres for Identification and Expulsion, within the context of a profound rethinking of immigration policies, could be the chance for our country to trace a new path of civil progress.

VIEW THE REPORT’S SUMMARY
VIEW THE PHOTOGALLERY

Ufficio stampa – 3343929765 / 0697844892

[notification type=”notification_mark_tiny”]Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) is an independent humanitarian organisation which has conducted the “Observatory on Social and Healthcare Aid for the Migrant Population within the CPTAs/CIEs” program from 2004. MEDU participates in the LasciateCIEntrare (Open access now) campaign. The CIE Archipelago report was undertaken with the support of Open Society Foundations.[/notification]

Document type: Press releases