Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

Cross staff to go and inform the doctor but in that moment Red Cross staff could be busy and I
could stay there, waiting for hours” (Interview 17).
We collected a great number of accounts and personal experiences concerning this problem of
waiting for medical attention. In the end, there seems to be a systemic slowness that affects
health services inside CIE 71 . Along with the issue of delayed assistance, there is a more
substantive problem of ineffective and/or inappropriate medical care inside CIE. We gathered
several different stories of physical suffering and psychological frustration, which together give
a realistic and worrying picture of medical services inside CIE 72 .
One detainee suffers from epilepsy. He is treated with Rivotril and Depakin 500 twice a day but
he claims that his illness is not compatible with CIE detention:
“I told them that I wanted to go to the hospital because I suffer from epilepsy. However,
they told me that I would only be taken to the hospital if I had a crisis and if I were in
danger of dying. However, I would like to know who takes the responsibility of this. [...] I
want this centre itself to take the responsibility if something bad happens to me while I am
here. […] The problem with epilepsy is that it comes like this and you are not aware that an
epileptic crisis is coming. So, I’m afraid of dying because of falling and hitting my head on
the ground. That’s why I want to go to the hospital. I cannot stay here. I am in danger of
dying” (Interview 21).
The following statement by a volunteer perhaps summarises the situation the best: “Medical
services are inadequate. There are some medical staff who try to do their best but they cannot cope
with the situation. [...] Once I even heard a doctor saying: “Please, do not bring anybody else here
unless he’s dying”” (Interview 2).
71 “Doctors are fine. Nurses are fine. [...] But, when you have a problem or something happens, you always
have to wait for many hours or even days before they call you. This is the problem” (Interview 22); “What you
learn here since the beginning of your detention is that you always have to wait, and wait, and wait, whatever
your request is. Once I had a terrible toothache. I told the Red Cross staff at 5 am, but they told me until 11 am
there was no doctor. But even after 11 they were not taking me to see the doctor, nor were they giving me any
painkillers. Until I finally started to make a racket, shouting, banging doors and so on, and only at that point
did they bring me medicine. And it’s always like this. If you need something, you need to make a racket to obtain
it. Otherwise they do not even look at you” (Interview 18); “Before a detainee is taken to the infirmary it takes a
long time. This happened with two episodes of epileptic shocks: the staff were called again and again and it took
half an hour to an hour for someone to come. They kept telling us that they had already been informed about
that” (Interview 2); “Once a guy had swallowed something, he was lying close to the gate, he remained there
for hours and nobody arrived” (Interview 2).
72 “If you ask for medication to sleep like a horse, they give it to you immediately. They give you whatever you
want. But if you need precise medicine or a precise treatment or medical examination to heal yourself, then you
have big difficulty getting it” (Interview 20); “I’ll tell you something: when I was in prison I broke my nose. It
was three days before being released. When police brought me here I immediately told the doctor my nose was
broken. He promised they would do something to fix it, but they didn’t do anything. I’ve been here for seven
months and they haven’t done anything. Now I can only breathe through my mouth, since through my nose I
cannot breathe anymore. [...] They told me they could provide me with a device that could help me to breathe
better through my nose, but they said I had to pay for it with my own money. I said it was OK. They wrote it
down but then they never brought me this device. It’s like giving candies to kids who are hungry: they give you a
candy and that’s it.” (Interview 19); “It’s two months that my knee is hurting. [...] I also had this problem
before entering CIE: my rotula is broken. Inside CIE I fell again and the problem came out again. My knee
became immediately swollen. They took me to the doctor here inside CIE, but I found the bad doctor and he sent
me back to my area. He told me it was nothing serious, but in reality it was hurting very much. The whole leg
and the foot became swollen. There was something wrong. So they took me to the hospital, but doctors couldn’t
understand exactly what my problem was. So they told me to go back there for a further check. My name is in
the register for hospital examinations, but they don’t take me to the hospital. It’s two months that my knee is
swollen and still hurting. And I’m waiting” (Interview 20).
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