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In Italy, the police can detain an undocumented migrant for up to 120 days, regardless of any criminal record. This deprivation of liberty – and of means of communication – is ordered by the Head of Police (Questore), and implemented on the simple validation of an honorary (lay) judge, the Justice of the Peace (Giudice di Pace). The appeal procedure is reserved to the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di cassazione), and takes an average of 12 months. Detention occurs when an undocumented migrant cannot be immediately returned to their country of origin or provenience. Other measures provided for by the law, such as: the issuance of a passport; the obligation to reside in a previously identified place; and/or to report to the police at fixed days and times, are rarely used. Italy currently has thirteen detention facilities: nine Pre-Removal Detention Centres (CPR), as well as four Hotspots in the south of the country, located near the Mediterranean. More than 700 people in total can be held in these locations. The present document describes the living conditions of detainees inside the second largest CPR in Italy, located in Turin. The information were gathered by the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI), which provides legal assistance to migrants to ensure that fundamental rights are respected. This black book was produced following the suicide of Moussa Balde, a 22-year-old boy who was attacked on 9 May 2021 in the streets of Ventimiglia by three unknown men. After being briefly hospitalized, the young man was taken to the Head of Police of Imperia, which ordered his confinement at the CPR of Turin in order to deport him. At the CPR he was placed in solitary confinement and was found dead on 23 May 2021. An investigation into these events, the living conditions and medical support in the Turin’s CPR from the Turin’s Prosecutor Office is currently ongoing. Versione in italiano – Version en français – Editable .odt file included.

Italian (English below) La presente ricerca nasce dalle preoccupazioni manifestate da più voci in merito allaqualità della tutela della salute all’interno dei Centri di permanenza per i rimpatri (C.P.R.,già C.I.E., Centri di identificazione ed espulsione).Spazi quasi inaccessibili di contenimento e segregazione, i Centri attirano moltepliciforme di sofferenza. Una prima di natura istituzionale: pur a fronte di investimentieconomici imponenti – 55 milioni annui per il funzionamento e per le operazioni dirimpatrio, escluso il costo del personale delle forze dell’ordine – solamente in 1 caso su 2 itrattenuti vengono effettivamente rimpatriati.Sia per la scarsa collaborazione di alcuni Paesi di origine, sia per la minima applicazionedelle misure alternative al trattenimento, il dato fotografa la crisi della credibilità di unoStato che – preso atto della propria incapacità di rimpatriare uno straniero privo del titolodi soggiorno nonostante 180 giorni di trattenimento – impone allo stesso di auto-espellersientro 7 giorni, sotto la minaccia di una sanzione penale.In secondo luogo è la sofferenza giuridica a connotare i Centri. Qui lo straniero è privatodella libertà personale pur in assenza di un reato, unicamente in ragione di una irregolaritàamministrativa. Inoltre il controllo giurisdizionale è affidato alla magistratura onoraria (iGiudici di pace), che in nessun altro ambito può disporre o convalidare la restrizione delbene supremo della libertà, certificando quindi un’autentica discriminazione istituzionalea danno degli stranieri.Da ultimo, e non certo in ultimo, il C.P.R. è teatro di “quella mortificazione della dignitàdell’uomo che si verifica in ogni evenienza di assoggettamento fisico all’altrui potere”,secondo la definizione scolpita dalla Corte Costituzionale nel 2001. Mentre sperimentanoil fallimento del proprio progetto migratorio – anche a fronte di soggiorni ultradecennali edell’avvenuta integrazione sociale, familiare, lavorativa – le persone trattenute subisconola soggezione al potere statale nella sua forma più invasiva ed espropriante, perfino più profonda dell’ambito penitenziario. English The present research arises from the concerns expressed by many voices regarding thequality of health protection within detention Centers for repatriation (C.P.R., formerlyC.I.E., Centers for identification and expulsion).Almost inaccessible spaces of containment and segregation, the Centers attractmultiple forms of suffering. Firstly, of an institutional nature: even in the face of massiveeconomic investments – 55 million per year for its operation and for repatriation operations,excluding the cost of law enforcement personnel – in only 1 case out of 2 the detaineesare actually repatriated.Due to the lack of both the collaboration of some Countries of origin, and the minimalapplication of alternative measures to detention, the data portrays the crisis of credibilityof a State which – having acknowledged its inability to repatriate a foreigner without a residence permit despite the 90 days of detention – requires them to self-expel themselveswithin 7 days, under the threat of criminal sanctions.Secondly, legal suffering is what characterizes the Centers. Here the foreigner is deprived of personal liberty even if they did not commit any crime, solely because ofan administrative irregularity. Furthermore, judicial review is entrusted to the honorarymagistrate (the Justices of Peace), which in no other sphere can place or validatethe restriction of the supreme good of freedom, thus certifying genuine institutionaldiscrimination against foreigners.Finally, but equally importantly, the C.P.R. is the scene of “that mortification of the dignityof any human being that occurs in every eventuality of physical subjection to others”, asdefined by the Constitutional Court in 2001. While they experience the failure of their migratory project – even in cases of more than a decade of residing in the country andthe occurring social integration, family and working life – the persons detained undergosubjection to state power in its most invasive and expropriating form, even deeper thanthat of the penitentiary field.