'I miss my mother. I miss Africa. I wish my body would be taken back to Africa because my mother would be happy about that. She must not cry for me, may I rest in peace.”
Ousmane Sylla, a 22-year-old young man from Guinea, left that message on the walls of his Roman cell in a deportation center for failed asylum seekers and migrants before he took his own life on Sunday. Italy does not have a repatriation agreement with his country. The hopelessness of being locked up was probably too much for him. Sylla wrote his cry of despair on the wall, as a kind of will. He then hanged himself from the bars of his cell in the Ponte Galeria deportation center, where he had been staying since January 27. He had previously spent several months in a center in Trapani, Sicily.
The tragedy led to a violent uprising in the asylum center on the west side of Rome. Six carabinieri and a soldier, who had been called in as reinforcement, were injured. The suicide of the young migrant from Guinea has also brought attention again to the hopelessness in often overcrowded deportation centers in Italy.
Available places quickly occupied
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, elected on the promise of tougher action on irregular immigration, pulled the deadline that failed asylum seekers and migrants may be held in such centers for up to eighteen months. That is the maximum in the EU.
“Italy did this with a view to a more efficient return policy, in line with Europe's intention,” said Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo, a lecturer in asylum law at the University of Palermo. “But by detaining those who have exhausted all legal remedies in such a deportation center for longer, the available places are filled very quickly.” The result: even more overcrowding in centers where living conditions were already dire, driving migrants to despair.
On paper, Italy has 1,338 places for asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies, who are always held in a closed centre. But in practice only 619 can be used. Protests, vandalism and cases of arson regularly take place in the centers, which means they have to temporarily close partially or completely.
The Italian government's plan to create more places and open deportation centers in every Italian region has not succeeded so far. On the contrary. There was a lot of protest from the regions against new centers, and some existing centers are also under fire due to scandals. In a deportation center in Milan it recently came to light that migrants were there spoiled food and had to live in unsanitary conditions, and In Potenza, southern Italy, indications emerged that migrants were being drugged.
Italy is certainly not the only European country struggling with the deportation of migrants without right of residence. To make such a return policy efficient, bilateral agreements are needed with the migrants' countries of origin. But even if you have such an agreement on paper, says immigration expert Vassallo Paleologo, practice often looks very different. “The best working agreement that Italy has is with Tunisia, and even then Tunisia usually takes back less than half of its nationals who have exhausted all legal remedies.” In other countries that percentage is much lower.
According to this asylum expert, opening more centers or detaining rejected asylum seekers for longer will not make the return policy more efficient. “As a politician you can promise that you will deport everyone without a right of residence, but that is not realistic.” , says the asylum expert.
He proposes to select more sharply. “Arrange who can work and integrate, and concentrate your deportation policy first and foremost on dangerous migrants, who have already been convicted, for example. The government and country would benefit more if the latter group were returned to their country of origin more quickly in the first place.”
You can talk about suicide on the national helpline 113 Suicide Prevention. Telephone 0800-0113 or www.113.nl.
#Suicide #deported #migrant #shocks #Italy
