A video of an alleged beating within a detention center for migrant repatriation (CPR) in the town of Gradisca d'Isonzo in Italy's northeastern region Friuli Venezia Giulia has raised heated debate at the highest levels. Opposition parties have asked Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to clarify what occurred, while the central police station denies that there "was any beating" at all.

Police tell their side of the story

The footage appears to show security officers in riot gear -- which authorities justified by citing multiple recent attempts by detainees to flee the facility -- forcing a detainee into a room.

The man, wearing only underwear, is seen being led into the room and does not visibly resist. A second image, circulated separately, reportedly shows the same individual with his face bloodied.

The No CPR movement, which circulated the news and the footage, alleged that the man had been beaten. However, the central police station said that the June 5 incident was instead as follows: "during a revolt with fires set by those hosted [in the facilities], state police with the support of the financial police intervened to restore order."

They added that those working at the facilities were "targeted by the throwing of bottles, fruit and other items and had to deal with coordinated actions meant to disturb. Amid this, those hosted were made to return to their rooms, as recorded in the video, which shows a man with a naked chest being accompanied to his room."

The statement also said that the video of the man being escorted was unrelated to the second recording in which the same man appears on the ground, wet.

"About an hour later, the same foreigner was treated at the medical point of the CPR. According to his account and as documented, the injury suffered (a superficial wound of 2 centimeters to his head) was caused by an 'accidental fall'," the statement said.

The police concluded: "There was no beating inside the facilities and there is no evidence".

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Opposition demand interior minister provide clarification

Political parties in the opposition have nevertheless called for the government to provide clarification, as they do not believe the police's version of the incident.

In the words of the Greens and Left Alliance's MP Angelo Bonelli, "what happened should immediately be clarified by the government. The response to protests over the very poor sanitary conditions by people who are, for all purposes, detainees in the CPR cannot be through truncheons. CPRs are a place of detention for migrants who did not commit any crimes. The images of police in riot gear and a migrant with his face covered in blood are unacceptable for a state ruled by law. Minister Piantedosi must explain what happened."

Echoing his words was Debora Serracchiani, in charge of justice affairs for the Democratic Party (PD), who called it "a very serious incident that must be explained soon in detail. The center should be closed due to its extreme living and working conditions."

The video, said migration chief for the PD's Friuli Venezia Giulia region and former mayor of Gradisca d'Isonzo, Linda Tomasinsig, "shows that happens almost daily in that place of desperation and violence with its very poor conditions and where protests, damage, and acts of self-harm have been recorded in recent weeks."

Gianfranco Schiavone, head of the Consorzio italiano di solidarietà (ICS), said that "we are faced with a situation that has long been out of control, which does not surprise me. All the studies and all the reports of these years, the latest by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, have shed light on the same exact things. CPRs are places of violence in which it is impossible to comply with the rule of law."