Photo: Kami Fares

Over a hundred accounts collected from migrants, both adult and underage, detailing their experiences of summary readmission from Italy to Greece. Italy does not safeguard the basic human rights of the migrants, especially asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors.

Rome, November 28th 2013 – Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) presents UNSAFE HARBOURS. Report on the readmissions to Greece from Italian ports and the violations of the migrants’ basic human rights.

Every year, several thousand migrants – often fleeing war and persecution – leave the Greek ports and attempt to reach Italy and the rest of Europe by stowing away on the ships which cross the Adriatic. Every year the vast majority of migrants detained upon disembarking in Venice, Ancona, Bari and Brindisi are remanded by the Italian authorities to Greece, following a readmission agreement between the two countries.

Though for various reasons this phenomenon has shrunk in numbers over the past years, the Adriatic Route remains a continuing problem both due to the human suffering it engenders, including the serious risk to the migrants’ lives, and the serious questions it raises about Italy, Greece and the EU’s inadequate protection of basic human rights, especially those of unaccompanied minors and asylum seekers. Even in 2013, according to the accounts collected by MEDU, most migrants travel under trucks or inside containers loaded into the ships, while a smaller number of migrants attempts the route as passengers, using forged papers procured at great cost from traffickers.

The results of this report are based on an investigation undertaken by MEDU in Greece and Italy between April and September 2013, with the objective of more thoroughly understanding the problem of readmissions from Italian ports to Greece and the possible violations of the migrants’ basic rights therein. A MEDU team has gathered the eyewitness accounts of 66 migrants – most of whom hailed from Afghanistan or Syria – who declared that they were readmitted to Greece from Italy. As some claimed to have been turned away more than once, a total of 102 readmissions was documented, of which 49 took place in 2013 (see data summary table).

In eight out of ten cases the readmitted migrants claimed to have fruitlessly attempted to communicate to the Italian authorities their desire to seek international protection or to remain in Italy out of fear of what might happen to them if turned away. Twenty six instances of readmission of unaccompanied minors were documented, of which 16 took place in the first 9 months of 2013. Only in four cases, the Italian authorities conducted a no complete procedure to establish the migrants’ age prior to readmission.

While Italy has the right to regulate access to its territory, the policies enacted to combat irregular immigration must in any case respect the basic human rights of migrants, asylum seekers and those vulnerable categories such as foreign unaccompanied minors. When it comes to readmissions from the Adriatic ports, the numerous and detailed accounts collected during this investigation prove how Italy systematically violates some of the basic tenets of its own legal system as well as international law, such as the ban on direct and indirect refoulement, on exposing migrants to inhumane or degrading treatment, and on collective expulsion.

From the testimonies of the readmitted migrants and from the interviews given by NGO staff manning the frontier posts on the Adriatic, as well as analysis of the data provided by the Ministry of the Interior, it emerges that the right to appeal, to information, to avail oneself of an interpreter and to receive legal aid, as well as adequate proof of establishment of underage status, are systematically violated.

Medici per i Diritti Umani asks the Italian government to immediately cease its practice of summary readmission to Greece and that the migrants at the Adriatic border posts be offered real access to national territory and protection. Medici per i Diritti Umani also believes that a further reform of the Dublin Regulations is necessary, as – as proven by this report – it has shown itself to be inadequate in protecting asylum seekers and guaranteeing a fair division of requests for international protection among all European countries.



The UNSAFE HARBOURS report was created in partnership with ASGI and ZaLab and with the support of Open Society Foundations.

Read the FULL REPORT (in Italian) and the SUMMARY (in English)
Read THE DATA SUMMARY TABLE
Watch READMITTED the video report by ZaLab directed by Paolo Martino.

MEDU Press Office: +39-3343929765 /0697844892 mail:info@mediciperidirittiumani.org