Calls for the closure of a migrant detention center in Rome have escalated following the tragic death of a 19-year-old Guinean who allegedly took his own life last month, news agency Agence France Press (AFP) reported on Saturday (March 9).

The body of Ousmane Sylla was found at the Ponte Galeria detention center (CPR) located on the outskirts of Rome. Sylla had reportedly been ordered expelled from the country, but Italy has no repatriation agreement with Guinea, his country of origin.

The Radicali Roma, an association affiliated with the Italian Radical Party, started an online petition demanding the closure of Rome’s repatriation center in Ponte Galeria, citing repeated episodes of violence, suicide, and protests by detainees.

Riccardo Magi, an Italian lawmaker, who visited the center on Sunday said Sylla had hung himself after expressing desperation at not being able to go home to join his family.

"These centers are black holes for rights and humanity," Magi told La Repubblica television, calling for them to be closed. "Most people who are being held here will never be repatriated."

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Sylla's death sparked outrage among detainees who set mattresses on fire and threw objects at police. Law enforcement reportedly arrested 14 people.

According to media reports citing Marco Stufano, head of the office of Rome's prefect, six other people detained at the same facility have made attempts to end their lives following Sylla's death. One person remains in the hospital and two were returned to the center. Three were transferred to other facilities "because their conditions were deemed 'incompatible' with detention at Ponte Galeria," the AFP quoted Stufano as saying.

Notoriously inhumane conditions

Italy, which has taken a hard line against irregular migration, has 10 migrant detention centers designed as temporary holding areas for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected or for foreigners facing expulsion for criminal or other reasons.

However, the right-wing government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has defended the centers as essential to curbing migration to Italy. Meloni's government has extended the amount of time migrants can be detained at the centers to 18 months as part of a strategy to deter would-be refugees and their traffickers from attempting to enter the country by crossing the Mediterranean.

Human rights organizations have long condemned the living conditions in these migrant detention centers, calling them "black holes of human rights violations", reported AFP. Undocumented migrants are detained for extended periods without formal charges and forced to endure conditions worse than in actual prisons.

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Sewed mouths shut in protest

The conditions at the heavily guarded Ponte Galeria migrant detention center were also brought to the spotlight after migrants staged a series of protests in 2014. According to media reports, thirteen Moroccan men between 20-30, stitched their lips together using thread from a blanket and a small needle. The men were opposing their long stay in a supposedly short-term detention facility and only ended the protest after assurance that their cases would be speedily dealt with.

The men were reported to have made the journey to Italy from Libya in an overcrowded dinghy.

The previous year, footage of naked asylum-seekers being hosed down at a migrant detention facility on Lampedusa. drew condemnation from the European Union.

Italy, with its coastline that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, has become a main entry point for irregular arrivals into Europe from northern Africa. Last year saw record-high arrivals in Europe from North Africa, with over 150,000 migrants reaching Italy by sea.

with Agence France Press

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