Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

“The volunteers when they come bring - how do you say it in Italian - to project a film.
Every so often the Red Cross also comes to do a bit of gymnastics, they bring the radio. It
makes me happy to do something” (Interview 11);
“[Detainees] play football, play cards, speak and talk together [to] pass the time because
there isn’t anything to do” (Interview 21);
“On Sundays they show movies. The priest and sisters, they play games with us like bingo
[and] volleyball” (Interview 24).
Detainees reported that they are allowed to play football on a cement yard inside their
respective detention areas. There is a football pitch inside the centre, however at the time of our
research we received reports from some detainees that they were not allowed to use the
football pitch 62 .
The CIE administration has also implemented some activities. Detainees, lawyers and
volunteers reported “pet agility” dog training workshops inside the CIE. This activity was not
only aimed at training dogs but also at teaching Italian language skills. This was the only
opportunity provided by the CIE administration for detainees to learn some Italian. However,
from one perspective “[i]t looks like a joke” (Interview 7) because when understood in the
context of CIE, the amount of attention given to dogs can be offensive in comparison to the
treatment received by detainees. We should also recall that many people cannot imagine
themselves near dogs due to their culture or religion.
7. RULES
When detainees first enter Turin’s CIE they are provided with a booklet with the CIE rules that
is translated into several languages. However, when asked if there were rules in CIE most of the
detainee interviewees did not link this booklet to the rules within CIE: “Here there are no rules.
You have to stay here and that’s it” (Interview 20); “No rules here.” (Interview 26); “No, there are
no rules to follow” (Interview 11); “In jail there are precise rules, while here there are no rules”
(Interview 25); “There are no specific rules” (Interview 13). This is particularly concerning
because this booklet explains both the detainees’ responsibilities and their rights. Our evidence
calls into question whether a number of detainees might have trouble digesting the written
information inside the booklet.
As concerns the small number of detainees who said that CIE did have rules, most of them only
had a very vague understanding of what those CIE rules were: “I don’t really know much about
the rules. I guess they say that we must be respectful and not cause problems” (Interview 24);
“There were no particular rules, you just had to be quiet and not make a racket, that’s it”
(Interview 17). However, some detainees reported more precise, although basic rules: “We
cannot escape, we have to obey the Red Cross and police” (Interview 14); “There are rules, we
cannot have lighters and we cannot have things like a broom to do the cleaning” (Interview 21).
Indeed, a number of objects are prohibited inside CIE for safety reasons:
“Sometimes there are searches inside detainees’ rooms: detainees have to go out of the
rooms while guards enter with dogs and check them. They are not allowed to keep
62 “There is a small football pitch inside CIE, but we’ve never used it. We can only play inside our area, in the
courtyard in front of our room” (Interview 18); “We do nothing here. They do not even allow us to use the small
football pitch we have here. And indeed when we get hurt, it is often because we play football in the cement
courtyard inside our area. We have a rubber ball that sticks to the cement, so it’s easy to fall and to get hurt”
(Interview 20).
40 | P a g e