During a visit to a hospital in Monza, northern Italy, our reporters heard terrible stories from migrants who were tortured. A surgeon there says they have treated people with "smashed hands, machete cuts, petrol burns."
The migrants that are being treated at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza have often experienced horrific torture in Libyan detention centres or suffered terrible injuries during their journey.
Yusuf was covered in petrol and set on fire in a Libyan centre. The fact that he survived is a miracle.
Ali, in a desperate attempt to save a friend who was trapped in the snow in France got such terrible hypothermia that he lost the use of his hands.
Dr. Massimo Del Bene has treated many such cases personally. He is the director of the department of reconstructive plastic surgery, hand surgery, and reconstructive microsurgery at San Gerardo Hospital' in Monza, northern Italy.
"For about three years, we have been treating migrants who fled the torture they suffered in concentration camps in various countries of Sub-Saharan Africa," Del Bene said. "Most of them are very young men, about 20 years on average. They have smashed hands, machete cuts, petrol burns. Images that take you back to the Middle Ages, that speak of primitive torture."
Unspeakable violence
In the surgery department, patients arrive who have been victims of unspeakable physical violence.
"An 18-year-old Ivorian who tried [...] to get to France lost all the fingers on his hands after they were frozen in an attempt to save a friend buried in the snow," Del Bene said. "Another young migrant was set on fire, and arrived with very deep marks on his upper limbs and torso."
One of the other major problems the doctors have to face when trying to treat torture victims is the passage of time. "The biggest difficulty is treating wounds that are in some cases years old," Del Bene said. "Hand bones that have calcified incorrectly, deformed scars from untreated wounds. Here in Italy we usually operate on victims of road accidents that took place just hours before, with so-called post-traumatic surgery. But migrants need a different type of operation, one that we call torture surgery," he said.
Idea for a centre for child war victims in Italy
Del Bene's close contact with such cases has led him to new humanitarian projects. "My biggest dream is to open a centre for child victims of war," he said. He said the centre in Italy would be a place where minors "could not only survive, but have the chance for a better life."
He said there are many healthcare professionals who would be willing to do this type of work. "There are really a lot of doctors and healthcare workers who would willingly dedicate part of their time to a volunteer project such as this," Del Bene said.