Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

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A.’S STORY (INTERVIEW 11)
A. is a thirty-one-year-old Peruvian woman who arrived in Italy more than fifteen years ago.
She used to have a regular job, a residence permit and a regular life where she rented a
house and had a car. After a while, A. lost her job and she was very stressed since she
realised that this meant that she risked losing her residence permit. A. committed crimes
and consequently she was imprisoned for six months, during which time her residence
permit expired. A. knew about CIE and so at the end of her detention in prison she was not
surprised about being transferred to CIE.
A. does not want to go back to Peru and she does not have any family there. Her relatives all
live in Italy now: her mother is a long-term resident, both of her brothers have regular jobs
and Italian residence permits and her nine-year-old daughter was born in Italy. A.’s greatest
distress is that she deeply misses her daughter: “I always miss my daughter more and more.
The problem is that I am stressed because I cannot see my daughter”. A.’s daughter does not
really know where her mother is because she thinks her mother is away working.
Furthermore, A. cannot see her daughter because of the distance between where the
daughter lives in Rome and Turin’s CIE. In addition, A.’s daughter was not only born in Italy
but she also attends school here and resides with her grandmother who has a valid permit to
stay in Italy.
The only way for A. to stay connected to her family is via telephone, however the cost of
telephone credit makes it difficult for A. to call her family as often as she would like to. Given
A.’s strong family ties to Italy and her daughter’s situation, this case raises legal concerns
(see next paragraph, on “Communication with the Outside World”).
Was it necessary to detain A. in CIE for five months instead of the supposedly default option
of voluntary departure? Why did the authorities deem it inappropriate to let A. stay with her
relatives while deportation was being organised? A.’s relatives have regular jobs, valid
residence permits and fixed accommodation and A.’s daughter attends an Italian school. In
the case that detention in CIE is really necessary, then why is A. detained in Turin’s CIE when
there is a CIE closer to her family in Rome?
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