(AGI) – Trapani – "I climbed over the gate and onto the perimeter fence, but then I fell down and in doing so broke both heels. A policeman then grabbed one of my feet whilst I tried to escape. I could see everyone else getting away while I was lying on the ground. Just me and five others didn't make it. I had decided to try and escape because I had no other option." This is the statement, translated from the French, of a 26 year old Tunisian who at around 5.30pm last Saturday attempted to break out of the Milo Immigration Detention Centre (CIE) on the outskirts of Trapani, with around 40 other co-nationals.
According to the Tunisian, there are 3 minors present in the Centre, as well as some detainees who suffer from diabetes and mental health problems. "They are given injections to calm them down," he states. "They don't stay in separate rooms, they are mixed in with everyone else." In hospital, the young man has been left completely by himself. He said that he had received no phone calls or visits from anyone from the CIE. Even the police, who kept him under surveillance for the first few days, left him from the moment he was immobile in bed. "I've been treated well in hospital, even if there are difficulties to understand exactly what is going on because nobody speaks French. The only person who helped me was another patient in the same room as me who knew some French. Now, he is the only one who comes to see me," he stated. "If I have understood correctly, the doctors say that after the operation, I'll have to wait another 30- 35 days before walking again." And afterwards? "I don't know where they will take me. I am afraid of having to return to the CIE." The Tunisian doesn't want his own country to be a part of his future, "there is not much freedom. We are all afraid of the Salafis." Yet he doesn't want Italy, which he mentions with disappointment, to feature in his future either, "it's just like all the other countries". His intentions are to go elsewhere. In France he has an uncle and a brother who are waiting for him. "It's a better place," he says. Fulvio Vassallo, member of the Association for the Judicial Studies into Immigration, has also recently spoken about escape attempts. Yesterday, together with Alessandra Siragusa from the Pd (Democratic Party), he paid a visit to the Milo CIE.
(AGI, Vincenzo Morfino)