An appeals court struck down a petition filed by Martinina, a Salerno-headquartered that ran a migrant repatriation center in Milan until mid-December 2023. The company was looking to appeal a court decision greenlighting the seizure of a branch of the company after an investigation led to the discovery of "inhumane" conditions for migrants hosted in its facilities.

Center put under receivership

The decision came after a January 12 hearing. Since the December 21 seizure, the migrant repatriation center has been under judicial receivership. The preliminary investigative judge also banned the company from engaging in contracts with the public administration for a year.

Following a December 1 inspection of the CPR, investigators also discovered that on November 13 the Milan prefect's office had "renewed the contract" with the company -- which had already won the contract worth about 4.4 million euros in 2022 -- for the management of the center for another year, until December 31, 2024.

The prosecutor thus saw the need to halt the "illegal situation", which "has serious consequences" on migrants.

Degrading conditions for migrants in center

According to investigative sources, the migrants hosted in the center were kept in degrading conditions. People with brain tumors, epilepsy and serious psychiatric conditions, for example, did not undergo medical examinations.

Those hosted were not provided with any sort of psychological or psychiatric assistance since the staff "did not know their language", sources said.

In a video-recorded inspection of the Milan center, public prosecutors also described a lack of medicine, "seriously lacking" healthcare facilities, "dirty" bedrooms, bathrooms in a "shameful state" and "stinking, rotting" food at the center.