A night of unrest was reported on May 17 at a repatriation center (CPR) in Turin. Four police officers were wounded, and a migrant fractured his leg during the episodes of violence. An earlier wave of protests and violence had been reported on April 30 at the facility, which had reopened on March 24 after being closed for two years.

Some of the migrants held at the CPR allegedly set the so-called 'white area' of the CPR on fire before climbing on a roof. The gesture, according to members of the 'No CPRs' network, followed a day of protests in the centre's 'blue area' with migrants refusing food over restrictions on phone calls.

The incidents

After the unrest on May 17, a small group of activists gathered outside the center in Corso Brunelleschi after learning on social media that a migrant was injured. Protesters called the 118 emergency service, but two ambulances and a fire truck that rushed to the CPR were allowed inside the facility's gates only after a patient mediation.

The injured migrant was later reported to have fallen from the roof during a police operation against the rioters and was taken to the ER. Institutional sources also said four police officers were treated for injuries and smoke inhalation.

The CPR currently hosts 50 people and can provisionally accommodate up to 60 guests.

The controversy over the center

Regional Councillor Alice Ravinale, a member of the Green-Left Alliance (AVS), reiterated that the centre "must be closed as soon as possible" because it is "dangerous for everybody."

Over the past few days, after visiting the facility, she had reported the presence of guests with "health or psychiatric vulnerabilities" and self-harm incidents, stressing that, during the night of May 17, "security forces kept coming and going while they could have been deployed in more useful tasks for the city, which are also less dangerous."

The center-left Democratic Party (PD) and Five-Star Movement (M5S), the week prior to the latest episodes of violence, had denounced the "failure of the CPR system," explaining that "a system that piles up people behind bars for an indefinite time cannot work."

Meanwhile, in the center-right, Augusta Montaruli, an MP from Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said "political forces that justify uprisings instead of condemning those who organize them and take advantage of the occasion to demand the closure of CPRs are politically responsible for what is happening."

"But the people of Turin and the government will not be blackmailed," she said.