Migrants with a brain tumor, epilepsy, or serious psychiatric conditions were considered "suitable to life in a restricted community" but were not subjected to medical checkups at a migrant pre-removal center (CPR) in Milan's Via Corelli, according to investigative sources.

The guests were not provided with psychological and psychiatric support because personnel "did not know their language", they added.

In a video-recorded inspection decree, prosecutors described a lack of prescription drugs, a "gravely defective" health facility, "dirty" bedrooms, bathrooms "in shameful conditions", as well as "smelly, expired" food at the CPR.

Searches and the acquisition of documents took place at the facility on Friday, December 1. The CPR hosts foreigners without a regular residence permit or with a pending expulsion order who are waiting to be repatriated.

Also read: Migrant repatriation centers concern Italian governors

Company Martinina srl and its two administrators under investigation

The facility is at the center of an investigation coordinated by State attorneys Giovanna Cavalleri, Paolo Storari and Tiziana Siciliano and conducted by finance police.

Martinina Srl, the Salerno-based company that won the contract to manage the center, and its two administrators, Alessandro Forlenza and Consiglia Caruso, have been placed under investigation.

Prosecutors believe fraud was committed in the "execution of the bid" with "malicious, misleading and unsuitable ploys" to make it appear "compliant with undertaken obligations" to guarantee adequate hospitality to migrants.

According to investigators, the two administrators of the company produced "counterfeit" documents, including fake signatures of deceased people, to simulate "the presence" of services agreed with the prefecture as part of the contract.

The services were actually "never provided or provided in a largely insufficient manner" in order to win the contract to manage the center for a year, which was worth nearly €4.5 million, according to court documents.

The long list of services that should have been provided under the agreement with the prefecture but were never granted to guests included assistance and care for seriously ill guests and drug addicts, cleaning services and organic and high-quality food.

In addition, cultural and language mediation was "gravely deficient", social and religious recreation "absent", places of worship and specialist medical care "totally absent" due to "lack of funding", according to the same sources.

Also read: New security package: more repatriation centers and expulsions

Opposite situation to the one guaranteed by administrators, investigators say

The prefecture of Milan for its part said that "management problems" had already emerged in the months leading up to the inspection and an administrative procedure against the company and its administrators had led to "the imposition of the highest sanction conventionally provided" in such cases.

Numerous witnesses provided accounts to investigators that contradicted the assurances made by the two individuals currently under investigation regarding the conditions at the Via Corelli facility.

These individuals stand accused of producing documents with fake signatures (including that of a deceased person), such as protocols of agreement with parish churches in Milan's Lambrate district, the association SSD Scarioni, as well as agreements with the Italian Islamic Centre, supermarkets, and NGOs. These alleged manipulations were purportedly carried out to influence the bidding process, which they eventually won on October 10, 2022.

Magistrates could open new investigations into other centers managed by Martinina srl, according to well-informed sources.