· Migrants begin to arrive again in Lampedusa. A death reawakes the political interest in deaths at sea
· NGOs denounce the situation: HRW raises the alarm over the latest massacre of migrants in the Mediterranean; Save the Children denounces the length of time taken to transfer minors off Lampedusa
· Escapes, revolts and arrests continue in the Pozzallo CSPA (First Reception Centre)
· Report delivered to CERD (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) on the phenomena of the incitement of racial hatred- data proves alarming
· Observatory on the violation of the right to a defence: proof of illegal refoulement in the port of Palermo
Migrants begin to arrive again
in Lampedusa. A death reawakes the political interest in deaths at
sea
During August new arrivals have been registered on the island of
Lampedusa. On 1st August, a fishing boat from
Mazara dal Vallo rescued 150 migrants at sea at the request of the coast guard http://www.siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2012/08/lampedusa-soccorso-da-peschereccio.html
and, in a separate incident, another boat was also rescued approximately 60
miles from Lampedusa with 100 migrants aboard, http://www.siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2012/08/soccorso-lampedusa-e-pozzallo.html.
Following on from these rescues, between the 17th and 19th August approximately
460 people arrived on the island http://www.lampedusaonline.com/lampedusa-soccorsi-460-migranti/
http://www.siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2012/08/nuovi-arrivi-sulle-coste-di-lampedusa-e.html.
Meanwhile on 23rd August, the Italian Navy
pulled 77 migrants to safety whose ship was sinking about 70 miles of the
Sicilian coast. During the rescue operation, a further 70 migrants arrived
directly in Lampedusa's commercial harbour.
In total, approximately 900 people have
passed through the island of Lampedusa in August 2012. The figure is not high
compared to previous years, but it nonetheless provided an occasion for the
ex-Minister Roberto Maroni to scream for the umpteenth time about an
"invasion", and giving him the opportunity to suggest the
implementation of well-practised formula such as refoulements at the border http://www.lettera43.it/politica/lampedusa-maroni-bisogna-respingerli_4367561841.htm
At the same time, the minister of the
international cooperation Riccardi expressed his regret over the death of the
Somalian Olympic athlete Saamiya, who attempted to reach the Italian coastline
in March 2012. He, nonetheless, proceeded to underline the fact that the number
of migrants arriving by boat is down on previous years. http://www.lettera43.it/politica/riccardi-a-lampedusa-sulla-tomba-di-saamiya_4367562887.htm
Although the form
of the two ministers' speeches was different, there appear to be similarities
in their content: both place emphasis on the number of arrivals without the
smallest concern for the number of people forced to leave north Africa and
cross the Mediterranean without ever reaching
European shores.
It is Gabriele Del
Grande, who through the blog "fortresseurope" http://fortresseurope.blogspot.it/2012/04/ragazzi-di-tunisi-dispersi-al-largo-di.html, keeps account of
the deaths at sea. There has been no further official news from Frontex on
refoulements at sea, despite the fact that the international agency is
currently active throughout the Mediterranean.
Escapes,
revolts and arrests continue in the Pozzallo CSPA (First Reception Centre)
The same scenes of escapes
and revolts, and the arrests which come with them, continue to occur regularly
within the CSPA in the port of Pozzallo. Reconstruction work has just been
completed and the structure has resumed its role as a Detention Centre for
north Africa citizens awaiting repatriation, even though officially speaking it
is not a Detention Centre. In particular, the most recent episode involved a
group of Tunisians who had arrived in Lampedusa and been transferred onto
Pozzallo, who reacted against the news of their imminent repatriation. These
are repatriations that occur arbitrarily and collectively and which deprive the
migrants of their right to meet lawyers and associations.
NGOs denounce the
situation: HRW raises the alarm over the latest massacre of migrants in the
Mediterranean; Save the Children denounces the length of time taken to transfer
minors off Lampedusa
While Italian politics does little other than present optimistic reports
on the arrivals by sea, Human Rights Watch, has not only published a series of
recommendations aimed at improving rescue operations of migrants at sea http://www.hrw.org/node/109494,
it also provides information of the next imminent wave of migrants expected
from Syria. The internal conflict which broke out there several months ago is
producing thousands and thousands of refugees ready to undertake journeys of
hope in order to reach Europe. "The European Union is developing a new
system of surveillance for its external borders, known as Eurosur: it states
that sea rescues are its principle aim, but according to the association for
human rights no specific guidelines
or procedures on how such objectives should be reached have been
included."
Save the Children, who are present on the island
of Lampedusa as part of the Praesidium project, have issued a press release
denouncing the inadequate and precarious Reception conditions of the 80 minors,
who have been staying in the Lampedusa CSPA (First Reception Centre). The
organisation has accused the authorities of taking too long to transfer the
minors from the island to the mainland.
Following the last lot of tranfers, which
took place on 27th and 31st of August 2012, with a ferry boat to Porto
Empedocle, the number of minors staying in the Lampedusa CSPA has gone down to
around 30.
Report delivered
to CERD (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) on the
phenomena of the incitement of racial hatred- data proves alarming
On 28th August 2012, a report concerning the thematic discussion of the
UN Committee for the elimination of racial discrimination was presented. It
focussed on the phenomena of the incitement of racial hatred in the media and
in political public discourse in Italy. The report was written by a network of
associations, including Borderline Sicilia Onlus, led by the legal Union for
human rights as part of the project "Enhancing Italy's civil society
participation to international bodies' decision making", which was financed
by the Open Society Foundation.
The results of the
report are worrying, and unfortunately, confirm the existence of all types of
violation and abuse suffered by migrants, which associations like ours have,
for some time now, been speaking out against.
Click on the link
to read the complete report
It is possible to
see the meeting at the link below
Observatory on the
violation of the right to a defence: proof of illegal refoulement in the port
of Palermo
Once again we are reporting another case of completely illegal government
procedures. The case in point concerns the refoulement of a Tunisian citizen,
who was not allowed back into Italy after returning from Tunisia. This is
despite the fact that he had lived and worked in this country for years and
that he has a daughter and pregnant wife waiting for him here. And as always
happens in these cases, we are speaking about measures with catastrophic
consequences, which are often irreversible. The only positive aspect to come
out of the situation, is the fact that an excellent lawyer from the Sicilian
section of ASGI (Association
for Judicial Studies on Immigration) was
able to contest the administrative act and that the Palermo Judge of Peace went
on to rule against what had happened. But the episode is not yet complete and
the man in question, M.A, still finds himself in Tunisia.
To get a better understanding of what actually happened, we interviewed
the lawyer Gaetano Pasqualino from the Palermo Foro and a member of ASGI.
"Can you explain to us
why this was an illegal refoulement?"
M.A. had been in Italy since 2005. He was the holder of a permit of stay
issued by the Trapani Police Headquarters and had been waiting almost a year
for its renewal to come through. A few months ago he received a letter (ex art.
10, l. 241/90) from the Police Offices requesting the production of his C.U.D
(annual pay slip with tax summary) and his certificate of residence. The letter
had not been translated and M.A., not fully grasping its meaning, failed to
produce the necessary documentation. In the meantime, he was forced to return
unexpectedly in Tunisia following a family bereavement. When he returned to
Italy on 1st July 2012, he was subjected to various controls before being
allowed to get off the boat. This revealed that in June his application for the
renewal of his permit of stay had been denied due to the missing C.U.D and
residency certificate. Yet he had never received any notification of this
decision. The authorities therefore decided to carry out the operation there
and then on the boat and officially informed of his refoulement as well as the
decision to place him under the guard of the Captain of the boat (all of which
was done only in Italian). M.A. had to stay aboard the ship for a whole week
before it returned to Tunisia. I went through the Tunisian Consulate in order
to authenticate his signature and was able to contest the measure on the
grounds that M.A. is married to a Tunisian who is resident in Italy and who was
pregnant and that the couple already had a young a daughter. Article 19 of the
Italian decree, Testo Unico
dell'Immigrazione, prohibits the refoulement and expulsion of pregnant
women, and the Constitutional Court has since extended this ban to also include
husbands. On these grounds, the Palermo Judge of Peace ruled against the
refoulement."
"What is the current
situation? Are there any other legal pathways that can be taken?"
"M.A. is still in Tunisia, and his wife, who lost the baby, has been
placed in a reception centre with her daughter. It's highly likely that M.A.
will have lost the job he had as a fisherman. His employer will probably be
unable to justify such a prolonged absence, even though the matter was out of
M.A.'s hands. He is currently unable to re-enter Italy due to the fact that the
renewal of his permit of stay has been denied, for which we are working on an
appeal through TAR (Regional Administrative Tribunal). In the meantime, we have
also made a request to the Minor's Court in Palermo to allow M.A. back into the
country on the grounds that he is father to a minor (ex art.31, paragraph 3, Testo Unico). We hope that the Court
will act quickly given the seriousness of the situation."
