Betwixt and Between – A Human Rights Investigation Into Turin's Immigration Detention center

This report investigates the extent to which Italian, European and international human rights and migration law is applied inTurin’scentro di identificazione ed espulsione(Turin’s CIE)- an immigration detention centre in northern Italy. This study was motivated by the fact that a number of institutions and organisations at local, national and international level have expressed concern about the current praxis of administrative detention of irregular migrants in Italy. The inconsistency between the explicit and implicit aims of immigration detention centers is of particular concern because it gives rise to a situation that is a fertile ground for abuse, inefficiencies and shocking human rights violations. In order to evaluate the application ofhuman rights law in Turin’s CIE, the CIE Research Project considers both individual and systemic problems faced by detainees, their families and people who have direct contact with the centre in a professional or voluntary capacity. These problems are analysed in terms of the conditions of detention as well as the judicial and legal processes that surround immigration detention. Throughout the research a concerted attempt was made to give voice to the lived experience of interviewed migrants; an element which is unfortunately all too often missing from research on immigration in Italy.The research was limited to experiences of detention in Turin’s CIE in theperiod January 2011 - June 2012 inclusive. As part of this research project, twenty-nine recorded interviews of between forty and ninety minutes were conducted with current and former immigration detainees and experienced lawyers, NGO workers, religious volunteers and a journalist. The interviews were semi structured and different but comparable interview forms were used with different categories of interviewees. These forms were designed in a manner that aimed to reveal information necessary to evaluate the application of civil and political rights, as well as economic, cultural and social rights. Moreover, in order to try to access a broad cross-section of people with experienceinside Turin’s CIE,researchers were available to conduct interviews fluently with foreign citizens in their choice of seven languages. The report also draws on a range of secondary sources both in terms of background research and methodological modelling. Estratti in italiano– Responses from Authorities