In a report published on July 3 Amnesty International denounced the "illegal deprivation of liberty" that migrants in Italy suffered, stating that they were forced into detention centers that fall below international standards.
In Italy, migrants and asylum seekers are illegally deprived of liberty in detention centers that do not meet international standards, Amnesty International alleges.
For its new report titled "Liberty and dignity: Observations by Amnesty International on the administrative detention of migrants and asylum seekers in Italy", published on July 3 on the NGO's website, the NGO visited two repatriation centers in April -- the Residence and Repatriation Centers (CPR) of Ponte Galeria in Rome and Pian del Lago in Caltanissetta.
"Detention should be a measure of last resort. However, at the centers we visited we met individuals who should never have been detained: those with serious mental issues or seeking asylum due to their sexual orientation or political activism, but who come from countries Italy has arbitrarily defined as safe," stated Dinushika Dissanayake, Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty International for Europe.
At the CPRs, Amnesty spoke with security officers and employees working at the facilities, according to their own information. They also held private discussions with those detained.
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'Conditions are not aligned with International standards"
Amnesty International found that the living conditions at the Centers are not in line with applicable International rights and law.
"The administrative detention tied to migration must not be punitive, and it must not impose similar conditions to those of a prison, but the centers we visited appeared to be extremely restrictive, inadequate and ill-equipped in terms of health and safety," stated a note shared by the NGO.
"These conditions violate people's right to dignity and must be improved by the Italian authorities. Plans to build new centers in Italy, combined with the introduction of mandatory border procedures under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and the upcoming implementation of the Italy-Albania agreement, make action ever more urgent to prevent further violations of international law that will affect an increasing number of people," it added.