International Human Rights Obligations on Asylum in Italy

Valeria Camarda, UN Regional Information Center, Italy Desk

In the context of its efforts to fight international terrorism and to counter irregular immigration, the Italian government has recently pursued policies that seriously undermine fundamental rights.  As part of a strategy to ban irregular migrants, Italy began on 6 May 2009 to unilaterally ban boat migrants on the high seas, sending them immediately back to their home countries, in particular Libya, without any process of identification of those in need of protection, and this in blatant violation of the right to asylum of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. To be more precise, no screening policy was adopted to identify refugees, the sick or injured, pregnant women, unaccompanied children, victims of trafficking or victims of violence against women. As a wonderful icing on the cake, a week later Libya and Italy announced the beginning of joint naval patrols in Libyan territorial waters, and in the first weeks after the ban was implemented about 500 boat migrants were summarily sent back to Libya, causing a dramatic cut in the number of boats attempting the journey from Libya to Europe.

The systematic turning back of immigrants without any form of identification of those in need of protection violates Italy's duty to ensure the right to seek asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention, as well as its non-refoulement obligations under the Refugee Convention, the Convention against Torture, the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, has expressed serious concerns on Italy's hermetic immigration policy. On the occasion of her visit to the UN Regional Information Center in Brussels she clearly condemned Italy’s behaviour towards immigrants who are “left or rejected” without their actual condition being verified, “as if they were garbage trucks.” The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg has officially informed the Italian Government of its intention to declare as admissible 24 authorizations to appeal collected on behalf of the expelled by lawyers Anton Giulio Lana and Andrea Saccucci, members of the Directive of the Tribunal Union for the safeguard of human rights. The appeal calls on the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and more particularly on Article 3, which forbids torture, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments, Article 13 that establishes the right to effective medical care before a national authority, and Article 4 of Protocol N°4, which clearly forbids collective deportations.

Even if the Italian government policies to control the influx of migrants have led to a sharp decrease in the number of migrants and refugees arriving by boat in Lampedusa, an Italian island off the Tunisian coast, migrants continue to reach Italy by crossing the Sicily Channel but are being denied the opportunity to land in Europe and receive much-needed humanitarian assistance. As a consequence, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Italy, while between May and October 2008 more than 21,000 migrants and refugees landed on the island after perilous sea journeys across the Mediterranean, over the same period in 2009 MSF teams saw fewer than 200 migrants. Many boats carrying migrants have been reported, intercepted at sea and forced back to Libya, exposing once again the refugees to the journey of violence and abuse they endured while trying to reach the North African coast.

During that journey many of them have had to cross the desert, were locked up in prisons where they were given no food or water; they were mistreated, beaten up, and in the case of women sometimes raped. When they finally manage to get on a boat to Italy or Malta, “they are sent back to re-live this nightmare all over again. This is a huge threat to their health and even their lives”, explains Antonio Virgilio, MSF head of mission in Italy and Malta. In 2008 alone, MSF provided medical care to more than 1,400 migrants and refugees who arrived on the docks of Lampedusa in need of urgent assistance. Most people seen by MSF came from sub-Saharan Africa but one third came from East African countries, including Somalia and Eritrea. They endured the particularly long and harsh journey to escape conflict, deprivation or widespread violation of human rights in their home countries.

Lampedusa has been a port of disembarkation for thousands of migrants and refugees who cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe for years. However since May 2009 MSF has assisted fewer than 160 patients. MFS’s work is aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable migrants and refugees and yet the NGO faces increasingly restrictive policies from mainland Italy. MSF’s operations in Lampedusa were suspended in October 2008 when the Italian Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that regulated MSF’s activities on the island, forcing the organization to withdraw its teams. After months of lobbying, a new MoU was signed in November 2009 which allows MSF to operate in collaboration with INMP, an Italian institute working on the health of migrant populations. Their activities are now being carried out independently from the Italian Government, and as such they are no longer eligible to the institutional funds which had previously allowed them to perform their work in Lampedusa.





Photo © Médecins Sans Frontières