ROME (AP) — The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee released a report Friday criticizing Italy’s treatment of migrants in local detention centers, citing cases of physical abuse, excessive force and the use of psychotropic drugs against detainees cited.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) report follows a visit in April to four migrant detention and repatriation centers in Milan, Gradisca, Potenza and Rome.
Under Italian law, these centers are intended to accommodate migrants who attempt to enter the country without a visa, have no right to seek asylum and are considered “socially dangerous” by law enforcement.
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The report details examples of “interventions” in the detention centres, known as CPRs, and identifies shortcomings including “the lack of any rigorous and independent monitoring of such interventions and the lack of accurate recording of injuries” suffered by detainees.
Italy has in the past defended the role of these centers as a deterrent against increasing illegal migration, noting that some “prison elements” are needed to prevent escapes from these facilities.
The far-right government led by Giorgia Meloni has also tried to export the Italian model abroad, striking a controversial deal with Albania to build and run two migrant shelters in the eastern country.
However, the deal encountered legal hurdles and was suspended by Italian magistrates at an early stage.
In its report on Friday, the CPT was also critical of the “widespread practice” of administering non-prescribed psychotropic drugs to detainees at Potenza, one of four centers visited.
The report also highlights “the prolonged handcuffing of persons apprehended in the territory during their transfer to a (detention facility).”
In its report, the anti-torture watchdog advised Italy to remove “carceral elements” from the centers and ensure proper maintenance, especially sanitary facilities.
It also showed the critical lack of activities offered to migrants detained in the centres, with minimal efforts to offer them “a few activities of a recreational nature”.
The report concludes that the commission’s findings, “particularly with regard to the very poor material conditions, the lack of an activity regime, the disproportionate safety approach, the variable quality of healthcare provision and the lack of transparency of the management of resuscitations by private contractors”, raises doubts about Italy’s application of such a model in an extraterritorial environment, such as in Albania.
The death of a young detainee at Rome’s Ponte Galeria center in February brought renewed attention to the harsh conditions in these de facto prisons for migrants, which have been condemned by lawyers and activists as “black holes” of human rights abuses.
At least 13 people had died – five by suicide – in Italy’s detention centers between 2019 and 2024, according to activists and aid groups. Hundreds of suicide attempts and cases of self-harm have also been reported.
The Italian government believes that the detention centers, which were established in 1999, are essential to reduce the number of migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Europe.
In 2023, the government extended the maximum detention period from 90 days to 18 months.
In response to Friday’s report, Italian authorities indicated that the described cases of physical abuse “have not been the subject of criminal investigations and that several inspections have been carried out by the health authorities of the Potenza CPR regarding the practice of allegedly widespread overmedication of inmates.”
