Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

2. THE SITUATION INSIDE TURIN’S CIE
Our study shows that many of the international and European protections for asylum seekers
are at best respected in form. A number of detainees obtain information about their rights via
informal channels such as communication with other detainees 170 . There appears to be a
concerted attempt to dissuade detainees from asking for asylum- a lawyer working at the CIE
noted that detainees were frequently questioned about their desire to apply for asylum and at
times they were misinformed about their legal rights 171 . At least in part, this could be attributed
to an inherent conflict of interest because all of the CIE staff whether it be interpreters, Red
Cross or the police are essentially government paid and hence there is no way to access a
completely independent source of information at the CIE:
“For example, translators seem to be good people who are trying to understand if there are
problems or not but the problem is that they are paid from the Red Cross and the director
of this camp is from the Red Cross. In any case, even if they are good people, they are paid
by Red Cross, they are not following the interest of the person [detainee], but the interests
of the camp. For example, when detainees are speaking with translators about conditions
for political asylum, they will remind them that if they ask for political asylum they won’t
go back to their country” (Interview 7).
In the words of another lawyer:
“There is a sort of word of mouth among guys detained in the same area, especially among
those who may not have a lawyer, this happened for example with many Tunisians. Many
of them apply for asylum but then they say: "No, I don't really want asylum, I want the
humanitarian permit", because some of them more or less understand what asylum is and
understand that they want something different but they just don't know the proper
procedure since nobody ever explains it to them. Nobody inside CIE explains to them what
asylum is and what the procedures are. They don't know what the Commission 172 is. Some
get more precise information through their lawyers, at least I hope so. Most of them only
apply for asylum once they are inside CIE, and not before, and they do it [apply] a little bit
randomly, without knowing exactly what asylum is and what its function is. […] There is no
information” (Interview 8).
Even more alarmingly, in practice there is no prohibition on deportation in the period between
when a request for asylum is first made and when that request is formalised by being
Maria Bethke and Dominik Bender, Förderverein PRO ASYL e.V., The Living Conditions of Refugees in Italy,
27 February 2011 .
170 “Everyone here knows. Nearly everyone has asked for asylum, like the Tunisians who arrived from
Lampedusa. Between us we get information” (Interview 12).
171 “Also, for example, once a person asks for political asylum they say: “Okay, but are you really sure that you
want to ask for political asylum? Because you know, if they accept your request you can never go back to your
country”. It is something I know directly from the director of the CIE. He told me that this is what they tell
[detainees]. Because from their point of view all requests are not really requests for political asylum and it is
something that they [detainees] are doing just to have a chance to go out of the camp. In fact, [if you get refugee
status] you really cannot go back, because Italian authorities will think you have no problems, but you can go
[back to your country of origin] with another kind of protection, humanitarian for example. But this is
something they say to avoid a request. […]They [detainees] are not well informed about their rights, I would
say” (Interview 7).
172 The Commissione territoriale per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale is an administrative body
under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior. Its function is to examine and decide on the applications for
the recognition of the refugee status or the subsidiary protection status. There are ten Commissioni Territoriali
in Italy. Each of them is competent over a territory that comprises a number of provinces.
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