Asylum seekers and refugees in Italy
Recent stories
Focus on police violence in Temporary Holding Centres for Aliens
Lecce: detention violence against North Africans alleged
5 June 2003 (323 words)
Mass deportations on seven charter flights
Under the governments 'Free Streets' operation, 1324 people were deported from August to November 2002.
28 November 2002 (51 words)
Albanian deportee commits suicide
An Albanian woman deported to Albania in September committed suicide one month later by shooting herself in the mouth with a kalashnikov.
15 October 2002 (57 words)
New law fast-tracks detention centre programme
In October, the government passed legislation giving it the right to fast-track the building of new detention centres for irregular immigrants awaiting deportation on the grounds of the 'national state of emergency' caused by the exceptional influx of non-EU citizens.
12 October 2002 (87 words)
Sicily: Two disasters leave at least fifty dead
At least fifty migrants died in two separate tragedies off the coast of Italy in the space of one week in September.
31 September 2002 (255 words)
Sicily: refugee reception crisis
The authorities in Sicily say that the island is on the point of being unable to receive any more immigrants and people are now talking openly of not only a humanitarian crisis but also a crisis of health.
19 August 2002 (78 words)
'Illegal immigration' - the hot election issue
In the run-up to the May local elections, immigration, asylum seekers and refugees were, as ever in Italy, the hot electoral issue, with the Northern League (NL) most strident in its attacks on 'illegal immigrants'.
1 August 2002 (682 words)
Civil disobedience campaign against detention centres launched
A group called 'The Disobedients' invaded a detention centre in via Mattei, Bologna on 25 January and 'dismantled' a wing of the centre in an act of civil disobedience.
19 May 2002 (203 words)
South Americans of Italian origin attempt to return
The number of South Americans of Italian origin applying for passports has increased vastly due to economic recession, with about 300000 South Americans Brazilians applying for passports.
12 February 2002 (39 words)
Bossi blames Turkey for clandestine immigration
In a speech in February supporting the use of the navy to turn back 'clandestines', Bossi launched an attack on Turkey which he described as 'the accomplice of traffickers in human beings'.
2 February 2002 (107 words)
Italy and Slovenia adopt joint border patrols
Since January 2001, Italy and Slovenia have been carrying out joint patrols of the 243 kilometre border in a bid to curb illegal immigration.
1 October 2001 (72 words)
Catalogue of deaths - November 2000 - August 2001
Between November 2000 and August 2001 four Tunisians, three Iraqi Kurds and five Albanian migrants are reported to have died at sea attempting to reach Italy.
1 October 2001 (153 words)
Detention centres reopen amid violence and protest
The detention centre observatory, run by the Italian statistics office (Censis) has provided data on detention centres.
1 October 2001 (321 words)
Nigerian girls trafficked into prostitution
The Guardian newspaper has established that more than 40 girls, some as young as 14, have gone missing from care homes in the UK in the last five years and been transported to Italy to work as child prostitutes.
1 October 2001 (162 words)
Turco-Napolitano law leads to rise in expulsions
Prior to the Turco-Napolitano law, only 11 per cent of those arrested after being stopped by the police were expelled.
1 October 2001 (68 words)
Proposed legislation criminalises illegal entry
The new government of Silvio Berlusconi has introduced a bill which will make illegal entry to Italy a criminal offence.
1 October 2001 (305 words)
Undocumented Chinese reduced to slavery
Fifteen Chinese women were discovered by the Brindisi police in Torchiarolo living and working in conditions akin to slavery.
1 October 2001 (80 words)
Inquiry into Yiohan cover up launched
An official inquiry has finally been launched into the cover-up of the 1996 Boxing Day disaster when 283 men women and children drowned after they had been decanted from the freighter Yiohan into a ferry which collided with a larger vessel.
1 October 2001 (259 words)
Accord with China against immigrant smuggling
In April, Italy signed an accord with China guaranteeing increased co-operation between police forces in the fight against organised crime and immigrant smuggling.
1 October 2001 (78 words)
Appeal process violated as Nigerian expelled
A Nigerian woman was taken for deportation from the via Corelli detention centre despite the fact the tribunal hearing her appeal against expulsion had not yet ruled on her case.
1 October 2001 (83 words)
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