Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

Turin. Sometimes, time is not enough and they have to go away and come back the
following day with their bags as well. But there are at least two more rooms which are
empty and not used and that could be used for visits. Once we complained about this and
they opened an extra room. But a common answer to our requests is that there are not
enough personnel to open a second room for visits. Once a Tunisian detainee went crazy
when his wife, who had come from France and was pregnant, was waiting outside CIE
because in that moment there was a diplomatic visit; she was waiting on the street and she
felt faint. They let her enter and sit on a bench in the courtyard and at the end the Red
Cross took her to the hospital” (Interview 2).
There are consistent reports that family and friends who visit CIE are being made to wait for
long periods:
“Sometimes they wait two hours, one hour. Sometimes you will see that a person arrives
there at one o’clock. When you arrive there at three [o’clock] they are still outside. It’s
always like that. I remember once that there was a boy who came to the CIE with me. I got
in and when I was coming out, at 5:30pm, 6:30pm, 6:00pm, at that moment they allowed
him to get in, so they really have to wait outside for a long time” (Interview 3);
“Yes [family and friends can visit], but with the same problem as lawyers. You as a lawyer
have to share the same place with a family. It means that I have to wait, the family has to
wait. There are two rooms. You can be lucky or not. It is not much time for family. There is
no rule. If there is somebody waiting for you, it is ten to fifteen minutes” (Interview 7).
Of the fifteen detainees who answered the question on visits, only two of them had received a
visit from family. Only one detainee had had a friend visit during their detention in CIE. For
most detainees, family and friends were unable to visit either because they were overseas, or
they were in Italy but suffered severe financial constraints and could not buy train tickets to
Turin, or they could not afford to miss work to see their loved ones during the CIE visiting
hours. All too often detainees are placed in Turin’s CIE when their families live in other Italian
regions. There are also detainees who suffer alone, having lost family members due to war:
“They all died, except my sister and my mum. My brother, they shoot him and threw him into the
sea. My father was killed during the war. My mother was seriously injured when our house was
destroyed. She cannot walk anymore. She’s in a wheelchair. A disaster” (Interview 22).
The majority of detainees had received visits from the dedicated and kind religious personnel
who volunteer to help them. Evidence indicates that currently only Christian religious personnel
are visiting Turn’s CIE. These generous, tolerant and inspiring volunteers try their best to help
detainees in a social worker-type capacity. They also have a very open approach to helping
people and some try to obtain and bring religious materials from non-Christian religions that
are published in the detainees’ language. Nevertheless, it is surprising that despite the
significant Islamic detainee population there is currently no Islamic imam available for Turin’s
detainees. Consequently, many Muslim detainees are holding their prayer sessions on their own
in the only large, indoors available spaces: often vandalised and unpleasant canteen areas.
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