rush to offices where they can “free” migrants –

The judges and the Sicily objective: this is how they want to avoid repatriations of illegal immigrants

Dario Martini

August 14, 2024

A boom in requests from ANM magistrates asking to move to the offices of those courts that deal with immigration. We are talking about the “hottest” fronts, Sicily first and foremost, where the detention practices of migrants are processed. The ideal place where those illegal immigrants who would otherwise be repatriated can be “freed”. Thus the red robes are back in action against the government. A “hot” issue since judges like Iolanda Apostolico, of the Catania bar, and other colleagues of hers, did not validate the detention of foreigners who were in the CPR of Pozzallo, in the province of Ragusa, effectively freeing them and allowing them to disappear. As is able to reconstruct, the news is that several judges have asked to be able to deal with this very issue, in order to directly influence the rules included in the Cutro decree, which provides for accelerated procedures for examining applications and then for possible expulsion for migrants who come from countries considered “safe”, such as Tunisia.

Here then is another piece of this scenario. After mid-August, a small revolution will begin in the management of all these procedures aimed at expelling irregular migrants, which are undoubtedly proceeding more quickly than in the past (in the first six months of 2024, there were almost 9,000 assisted repatriations: 5,111 to Libya and 3,800 to Tunisia). In fact, the Ministry of the Interior has moved the management of all those migrants who will be held (for a period of 28 days) in view of repatriation from Pozzallo to Porto Empedocle. The Pozzallo center will remain open, but only as a hotspot, no longer as a “Temporary Detention Center”. This last aspect is being passed to Porto Empedocle. What is the judicial fallout? Simple: the arrest orders in Pozzallo had to be all validated by the judges of Catania, while those of Porto Empedocle will all end up in the offices of the Palermo court, which has already started working to be able to “deal with” the huge amount of incoming applications. There are already two circulars signed by the president of the court Piergiorgio Morosini and the president of the immigration section Francesco Micela – seen by Radio Radicale – with which some Palermo judges have already been alerted and partly recalled from vacation to be ready for the first orders, probably before the end of the month.

To understand the extent of the problem, we need to remember the Apostolico case that broke out a year ago. The judge of Catania, in fact, began to let some migrants out of the detention center, effectively dismantling the rules wanted by the government. Then it was discovered that the magistrate had previously participated in a demonstration against the then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to get migrants off the Diciotti ship.

Meanwhile, just yesterday, the first civil section of the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal “for lack of necessity and urgency of expulsion” from Italian territory, presented by a 38-year-old Nigerian, who lived in Parma, annulling the decree of validation of the detention of the Police Chief of Mantua. “In this case – writes the Supreme Court – the validation provision is completely apodictic and laconic regarding the regularity of the expulsion of the detention, and completely ignores the claim of the applicant, regarding the existence of family ties”.

In this context, where judges are stepping in forcefully in the management of the migratory phenomenon in contrast with the government’s provisions, the preparation of the centers in Albania continues, the result of the agreement signed a year ago by Prime Minister Meloni with Prime Minister Edi Rama. The reception of the first migrants is expected shortly. The men of the Italian contingent who will manage the two facilities should arrive on August 20. The work has been particularly demanding, especially in Gjader, due to the particular conformation of the land that has complicated the construction of the urbanization works, from sewers to electricity and water connections.