Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

esearch group was able to interview a range of detainees from four of the five detention areas
currently used inside CIE 8 , as well as from the seclusion area (the so-called Ospedaletto).
The Sample Population
Current and former detainees constituted the first group of interviewees (Interview Form n. 1).
All current detainees were interviewed via telephone, and former detainees who had left Turin
after being released were also interviewed via telephone. The total number of current and
former detainees interviewed was seventeen, with fifteen of them being inside CIE at the time
when they undertook the interview. Three detainee interviewees were women and fourteen
were men. The researchers’ decision not only to include but also to focus on interviews with
detainees is based on the fact that it is extremely difficult to access information that
encapsulates the lived experience of an Italian CIE. Feelings are individual and it is therefore
impossible to paint a truly complete picture of how different detainees inside Turin’s CIE feel.
Nevertheless, this report does strive to give voice to detainees and therefore it has involved
substantially more first-hand detainee interviews than previous research studies on Italian
CIEs.
Whilst the most novel aspect of this report is the level of detainee participation, in order to
make a balanced evaluation of Turin’s CIE it was also crucial to conduct long interviews with as
many different parties as possible who have first-hand experience of the CIE. Consequently,
Interview Form n. 2 was targeted to lawyers, religious personnel and NGO staff who enter
Turin’s CIE on a regular basis or who used to enter CIE in the recent past. A similar albeit
modified version of this form was used for journalists researching on the issue of immigration
detention who had the chance to enter Turin’s CIE during the research timeframe. In total,
twelve interviewees were part of this second group.
According to the original research plan, a third group of subjects should have been included in
the survey. This group would have been constituted by the CIE personnel, meaning people who
manage or work inside the centre, namely the CIE director, Red Cross staff, military personnel,
medical staff (doctors, nurses, psychologists) and social workers. Interview form n. 3 was
drafted to conduct this last part of interviews and a formal request for authorisation to enter
Turin’s CIE, interview its director/staff and access some figures was forwarded to the local
authorities in May 2012 asking for a formal response by July 2012. Unfortunately we were not
able to receive a formal response by July and we hope that this will be possible for our next
investigation.
Disclaimer
As noted above, this report reflects the opinions of the individual researchers involved and it
does not necessarily represent the opinions of either the International University College of
Turin or the partner institutions: Associazione Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione, the University of
Turin and the Eastern Piedmont University.
This study involves a group of twenty-nine interviewees. Given the small sample group, there
are naturally limits on the extent to which this research can draw wider systemic conclusions
about the number or percentage of people who have similar experiences to our interviewees.
However, this report has sought to overcome this barrier by conducting long interviews that
give space for individual stories to be enunciated. Individual testimonies provide a poignant
8 One of the six areas (the White Area) was closed in 2011 after a number of detainees escaped from this area.
The detainees who were interviewed in this research project were detained in the Red, the Blue, the Green and
the Violet areas. The only area the researchers were not able to access was the Yellow Area.
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