AYS Daily Digest 20/01/20: Giving names to victims — deaths in Italian deportation centres
Updates from Gradisca//Ocean Viking will disembark the 39 people rescued in Pozzallo//18 year old woman stabbed in Moria//Video testimony of police brutality at the Spanish-Moroccan border//Deportation from Finland to Afghanistan//Right-wing Progress Party leaving as part of the Norwegian Parliament…
Twentynine people died in Italian deportation centres from 1998 until 2020.
The last death occurred on Saturday 18th January 2020 in the CPR of Gradisca d’Isonzo, when Vakhtang Enukidze lost his life, as he was surrounded by 8 policemen in riot gears and beaten heavily, causing him fatal injuries.
Therefore, today’s digest will, in a way, try to pay respect to those “invisible” deaths occurred by the hand of the Italian state, those deaths that are not investigated properly because the victims are “unwanted” in the country, guilty of being alone in a hostile land.
Data from 1998 until 2016 was collected by Morti di CIE, a collective of researchers and activists, which published a very comprehensive report in 2017.
The common element and the most recurrent one in all these 29 cases is the lack or the delay in medical treatment and assistance, even when clearly demanded by the victim’s fellow detainees. Another common detail is, needless to say, the brutality and excessive use of violence by the hand of police deployed in the centres.
Bari
2015, Reda Mohamed: cardiorespiratory arrest.
Bologna
2006, Mohamed Aloui: undefined and unclear causes of death, allegedly overdose of heroin and medications against epilepsy. Presence of hemorrhage.
2012, Ac Nande: suspected overdose, not investigated further.
Caltanisetta, Pian del Lago
1998, Amin Saber: hit by a stray bullet when police members tried to sedate a riot.
2006, Mehdy Alik: died while being transported in the ambulance, sudden illness.
2008, Yussuf Abubakr: sudden illness.
2020, Aymen: according to medical records, the man died of natural causes. In reality fellow detainees denounced a lack of medical treatments and inhumane living conditions.
Today, protests were ongoing inside the centre and riot police was present in the building.
Crotone
2013, Moustafa Anaki: heart disease.
Gradisca d’Isonzo
2014, Abdel Majid El Kodra: fallen from the roof of the centre during a protest, that police tried to sedate with heavy use of tear gas.
2020, Vakhtang Enukidze: died from injuries reported after being battered by policemen.
At this link, you can find testimonies of two phone calls (in Italian) received by activists from detainees during the protest that took place yesterday inside the centre. Detainees that were communicating with the people in solidarity outside the structure were targeted and heavily beaten.
In regard to this most recent event, today members of the Italian Parliament, together with the public representative for the rights of detainees, visited the centre in order to collect first hand information from both the management and the detainees to be able to conduct a proper investigation on the events. The personal phones of the detainees were seized by authorities to be analysed. It is clear that there are some visible flaws in the management of the whole structure: abuse of psychiatric drugs, lack of legal information and difficulties to reach personal lawyers, numerous acts of self-harm and overall, daily tensions due to the inhumane living conditions and the cage-like environment.
Lamezia Terme
2005, Said Zigoui: fallen from the second floor of the hospital he was hospitalised in for abdominal pain.
2006, Alexander Nikolov: suicide.
Lampedusa
1998, Abdeleh Saler: overdose of psychiatric drugs, apparently used to sedate him.
2018, two women and one 8 year old girl were taken to hospital after reporting severe injuries during a riot and the attempt to sedate it by police.
Milano
2009, Santos da Costa: suicide.
Modena
2007, Ajouli Monam: suicide.
2007, Huri Mohamed: suicide.
Ragusa
2006, Christiana Amankwa: medical negligence.
Roma, Ponte Galeria
1999, Mohamed Ben Said: medical negligence.
2009, Mabrouka Mimuni: suicide.
2009, Salah Souldani: medical negligence.
2012, Abdou Said: suicide.
Torino
2008, Fathi Neji Hassan: poisoning after excessive drugging.
2019, Sahid Mnazi: unknown causes of decease. He apparently had suffered sexual violence.
Trapani, Serraino Vulpitta
1999, Rabah, Nashreddine, Jamel, Ramsi, Lofti, Nasim: suffocation and burnings after a fire was set in the room they were locked in with other detainees. They were locked in the room by policemen trying to sedate a protest.
This is apparently not a satisfactory list for Italian authorities who decided to open (or re-open) two additional deportation centres in Sardinia, Macomer, and Milano, via Corelli. The CPR of Macomer has opened today in a former maximum security prison and has apparently undergone all the necessary refurbishment works to make it “suitable for recpetion”. Around 50 people will be hosted initially in the structure, which will be managed by a Swiss company, Ors, previously at the centre of an investigation for bad management of reception centres in Austria. The local population has been reassured by the mayor that public security will be strengthen by installing additional street lights, especially around the area of the CPR.
SEA
Nine cases of boats in distress in the Western Mediterranean reached Alarmphone just in the first two weeks of 2020, amounting to a total of 137 lives in danger, in addition to the 35 people who tried to enter Spain via Melilla and were heavily beaten by Moroccan authorities and directly pushed back inside the country.
GREECE
While, the new Migration and Asylum Minister, Notis Mitarakis, is concerned with the containment and reduction of migration flows in the Aegean islands, an 18 year old woman has been stabbed in Moria by a man leaving in the same hotspot.
The victim reported severe injuries in the chest and abdomen and is now hospitalised in Mytileni; her conditions are critical. The attacker, only two years older, has been arrested and charged.
It is the third deadly incident in Moria since beginning of the month.
Last week, a 20-year-old man from Yemen died following an knife attack by an unknown attacker.
Also a 20-year-old man from Congo lost his life when he was stabbed by a 27-year-old Afghan.
Be aware that on Wednesday and Thursday general strikes “against migration” will happen in Lesvos, Samos and Chios, meaning that all offices and businesses will be closed. Violence is to be expected.
SPAIN
Video testimonies have emerged on the brutality of the treatment Moroccan authorities reserved to 300 people trying to cross the Spanish border of Ceuta. Only two of the 300 people intending to cross managed to actually reach Spanish territory, but were immediately pushed back to Morocco.
In December 2019, the European Commission guaranteed 101,7 million euro to Morocco in order for the country to “manage migration flows” and “raise awareness” among young people and their families on the risks when deciding to cross the land and sea border.
Original source here.
FINLAND
NORWAY
The Norwegian anti-immigrant political party the Progress Party today declared that it is leaving as a part of the Norwegian government.
Norwegian Finance Minister Siv Jensen and her right-wing Progress Party are resigning over a cabinet decision to help bring a woman suspected of Islamic State affiliation back home to Norway.
The resignation means that the Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg are losing her parliamentary majority and it will most likely make the country more difficult to govern, but Solberg still plans to remain in office as head of a minority coalition.
According to parliamentary leader Hans Andreas Limi, the Prime Minister’s recent comment that it was morally right to bring home the IS woman and her two children, one of whom is considered seriously ill, has been received very badly in the Progress Party, where many members and voters have reacted incredibly negatively to this particular statement, according to Hans Andreas Limi.
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