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Gjadra refugee camp/ HRW report: Italy followed an oppressive model of immigration control

2026-02-04 10:46:00, Aktualitet CNA

Gjadra refugee camp/ HRW report: Italy followed an oppressive model of

Human Rights Watch, an independent international organization dedicated to the protection and monitoring of human rights worldwide, has published a report regarding Italy's immigration control.

The HRW report says Italy has pursued an oppressive model of immigration control that has included detaining people in migrant detention centers in Albania awaiting deportation and obstructing humanitarian rescues at sea.

It is also noted that Italian courts blocked successive attempts by the Italian government to process in Albania the asylum requests of immigrants from countries that Italy has included in the "list of safe countries of origin".

It is further mentioned that the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture warned in December two years ago that problems with detention centers in Italy call into question the implementation of such a model in Albania.

The HRW summary report also said that Italy violated an international arrest warrant for a Libyan official wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Racial profiling by police and violence against women remain serious concerns in Italy, according to the international organization.

“Italian courts blocked successive attempts by the authorities. In response, in March the Italian government repurposed an Italian-built and managed facility in Albania into a detention centre for people who had already been ordered deported. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture warned in December 2024 that problems with detention centres in Italy ‘call into question the implementation of such a model… in Albania’. Italian civil society organisations documented violations of the right to seek asylum and the rights to health, information and an effective remedy in Italy. A legal analysis by the Court of Cassation concluded that the Italy-Albania agreement may violate the Italian Constitution, EU law and human rights treaties.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in August that Italy had failed to meet EU asylum law standards in the case of two Bangladeshi nationals who had previously disembarked in Albania for asylum processing. Italian authorities allowed a 2017 Memorandum of Understanding with Libya on cooperation in the field of migration to be automatically renewed on 2 November for three years, despite serious abuses. In June, the European Court of Human Rights declared inadmissible a complaint involving a deadly interception by the Libyan Coast Guard in 2018, followed by the mistreatment of migrants in detention after their return to Libya, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction because Italy had not exercised effective control in the case. In August, the crew of a Libyan patrol boat donated by Italy opened fire on a rescue ship operated by SOS MEDITERRANEE, with 87 rescued survivors on board, breaking windows and damaging equipment. An Italian prosecutor opened an investigation into the incident.

A judge in July ordered four Guardia di Finanza (customs police) officers and two Coast Guard officers to stand trial on multiple charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection with a shipwreck in February 2023 off the coast of Calabria, in which 94 people, including 35 children, died. The Court of Cassation ruled in March that 177 migrants were entitled to compensation for the deprivation of their liberty while held aboard the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti for 10 days in 2018 before being allowed to disembark.

In July, the Constitutional Court said that government powers to fine and impound non-governmental rescue vessels were constitutional, but clarified that the imperative to save lives could justify disregarding state orders. As of September 2025, the government had impounded rescue vessels 34 times since February 2023, keeping the vessels away from vital rescue operations for 700 days. In August, the government grounded the NGO Seabird aircraft, used to spot ships in distress, for 20 days.

A referendum in June to reduce from ten to five years the mandatory legal residence before obtaining citizenship failed to meet the minimum turnout requirement; Prime Minister Meloni and other key figures in the government had called on people to boycott the vote.

"According to government statistics for 2025, by mid-September almost 49,000 people, including approximately 8,600 unaccompanied children, had arrived in Italy by sea, slightly more than during the same period last year," the HRW report said in part . /CNA