I illegal in Lampedusa

Eight days as a prisoner in the hell of Lampedusa island; eight days to tell what means to arrive in Italy as an irregular migrant, to be saved at sea and to be put in jail with other hundreds of desperate people in a temporary detention centre for migrants (CPT). In inhuman conditions; beaten up and humiliated by the police agents, forced to survive next to the excrements and in a situation of extreme violence; subject to all kind of offences to one’s dignity. «Io clandestino a Lampedusa» is the report by L’Espresso journalist on the humiliations, abuses and violence, on everything that Italy has always kept secret to the European Parliament inspections.

Under the name of Bilal Ibrahim el Habib, born on 9 September 1970 in the invented village of Assalah, in the district of Aqrah in the Iraqi Kurdistan, Fabrizio Gatti, after having been saved at sea, taken to the emergency, arrested by the Carabinieri, imprisoned in the temporary detention centre for migrants, has been freed with an injunction to leave Italy within 5 days. But, as a matter of fact, he was left free to become an irregular resident in any European town.

In his long tale, Gatti-Bilal describes the torture of the questioning and of the identification procedures, with the migrants that as soon as they come ashore are forced to pass naked between two lines of Carabinieri hitting them, with Muslims forced by the military guards to look at porno movies, and if somebody tries to refuse, he is beaten and insulted. A tough report from which we learn that in the well-known CPT in Lampedusa - defined by the Northern League member, Mario Borghezio, «a Five-star hotel» - toilets «are an unforgettable experience».

»The barrack hosting the toilets - Gatti writes - is divided in two sections. In the first one, there are eight showers, from where the water cannot get out, and forty basins. In the other one, there are five water closets - two of which with no flushing water -, five showers and eight basins. From the taps salty water comes out. There are no doors, no electricity, and no privacy. Everything must be done of everybody else. Somebody tries to hide behind a towel. And there is no toilet paper either: you have got to use your hands».

Here is the report, from an other part of Gatti’s article, on the personal checks on a group of people who had just arrived on the island. «’Take off your clothes’ says a Carabiniere to a youth in a t-shirt who is trembling because of the cold and of fear. He doesn’t understand; he remains still for a whole minute. 2What is the problem?», shouts the Carabiniere in English and then hits him on the head. The migrant, pale and thin as a skeleton, trembles. He’s slammed again. All the persons in that moment naked in front of the Carabinieri are slammed in the face.» After a little while, that same migrant will be hit again in the chest, while at the end of the day, after having filled in the detention form of the last six migrants, the Carabinieri celebrate with a barbecue in the courtyard.

»For six days, while in the temporary detention centre for migrants in Lampedusa - Gatti writes -, the imprisonment of Bilal Ibrahim el Habib has never been validated by a judge, although no citizen should be private of his/her liberty without the express decision of a magistrate within 48 hours. The Ministry of Interiors has also assured the European union that for every foreigner kept in Lampedusa there is a formal decision taken by a judge. As far as Bilal Ibrahim el Habib and the other foreigners, kept in the jails of the temporary detention centre for migrants in Lampedusa, between the 24th and 30th September 2005, are concerned, the information given by the Ministry is false».

la Repubblica, Friday 7 October 2005