Once upon a time there were the landings. And whoever didn’t ask for asylum got shuffled throughout the Centres for Identification and Expulsion (CIE) of Italy to await repatriation or the issue of a removal order. But now that the landings have decreased by 90% in the last five months (statistics from the Italian Interior Ministry), who ends up in the CIEs? To find out we are visiting CIEs throughout Italy. Starting with the one in Rome, in Ponte Galeria. There, we discovered that, other than about a third who are ex-convicts transferred directly from prisons, the victims of the crackdown on illegal immigration are mostly ‘Italians’. Italians in quotation marks, because they do not have citizenship, but they’ve been living in Italy fifteen, twenty or thirty years. People who received their residence permit with the amnesty of ’93 and ’95, and who stood by while their permits were withdrawn upon expiry, having found themselves without and employer at the time of renewal. In twenty years, though, one builds a life in Italy. And so there are those who have wives and small children on the outside. There are families who risk being broken in two. In he name of the Italians withoutquotationmarks. Dramatic events that have led some to attempt suicide by drinking ammonia or slitting their wrists. Or to fill up on psychotropic drugs so as not to go mad. Fortress Europe has gathered some of their stories for you.
In Turin he has a wife and a baby. But he´ll be repatriated
Floriana, in Italy since she was 13, deported to Albania
In Italy for the past 29 years, with his family. Now in a CIE
From the mansions of the rich to the CIE of Rome
Birthday party in the CIE of Rome. But the girl is 16!
Expelled with children in Italy: two stories from Milan
Stateless Croatian, Italy insists on his deportation
Edward and the ping-pong game between Italy and Ghana
CIE in Turin: a soldier shatters his tooth, he files a report
Supreme Court: expelled even those with children in Italy
translated by Camilla Gamba