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Sicily can’t shut down migrant detention centres, Italian court rules

An Italian court Thursday slapped down a decree issued by Sicily's regional governor Nello Musumeci ordering the closure of migrant centres on the island.

Published: 28 August 2020 09:19 CEST
Sicily can't shut down migrant detention centres, Italian court rules
Photo: AFP
The Sicilian regional administrative court approved an appeal lodged by the central government in Rome for Sunday's decree to be scrapped, the AGI news agency reported.
 
Musumeci has clashed with officials in Rome over the issue, but anti-migrant opposition League party leader Matteo Salvini praised the move ahead of local elections next month.
 
The Sicilian leader had ordered that all migrants on the island's “hot spots” and reception centres be transferred to facilities outside the island.
 
Musumeci's decree also banned any migrant from “entering, transiting and stopping over on the Sicilian region's territory with vessels big and small, including those belonging to charities.”
 
READ ALSO: Dozens of migrants flee second quarantine centre in Sicily
 
 
A migrant detention centre in Sicily. Photo: AFP
 
But the court disagreed, saying “there was no rigorous investigation to demonstrate that the spread of Covid-19 was worsening among the local population because of the migration phenomenon.”
 
Sicily has no real means to transfer migrants outside the island, and interior ministry officials say migration is legally a central government prerogative.
 
The measures announced by Musumeci, who was elected on a right-wing ticket, “seemed to go beyond the scope of the powers conferred upon regions,” in
managing the coronavirus crisis, the court said.
 
Migration has for years been a hot-button political issue in Italy, a main EU landing point for people crossing the Mediterranean and arriving in Sicily and sister island Lampedusa.
 
People from Libya arrive on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on July 31st, 2020. Photo: AFP
 
The court will now convene again on September 17 at Sicily's request which is planning to present new evidence to boost its case.
 
While dozens of migrants hosted in detention centres in Sicily have tested positive for Covid-19, health officials say the spread is due to conditions at the centres which are overcrowded with migrants who have been arriving daily by the hundreds in recent weeks.
 
From August 1st last year to July 31st this year, over 21,600 migrants arrived at Italy's shores – almost 150 percent more than the near 8,700 landings the year before, according to official data.
   
Despite the sharp rise, the number of migrant arrivals is still far below numbers recorded in recent years, especially before Rome signed a deal with Libya for its coast guard to prevent migrant departures.
 
 

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POLITICS

Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The Italian parliament has passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter consultation clinics, sparking outrage from opposition parties.

Published: 24 April 2024 13:05 CEST
Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The measure adopted by the Senate late on Tuesday evening allows regional authorities to permit groups deemed to have “a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to women considering abortions at clinics run by the state-funded healthcare system.

The government says the amendment merely fulfils the original aim of the country’s 1978 law legalising abortion, which says clinics can collaborate with such groups in efforts to support motherhood.

Pressure groups in several regions led by the right are already allowed access to consultation clinics, and the measure may see more join them.

Some regions, such as Marche, which is led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, have also restricted access to the abortion pill.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), slammed the new law as “a heavy attack on women’s freedom”, while Five Star Movement MPs said Italy had “chosen to take a further step backwards”.

READ ALSO: What will Italy’s right-wing election victory mean for abortion rights?

Meloni has repeatedly said she has no intention of changing the abortion law, known as Law 194, but critics say she is attempting to make it more difficult to terminate pregnancies.

There have long been concerns that the election of Meloni’s hard-right coalition would further threaten womens’ reproductive rights in Italy.

Accessing safe abortions in Italy was already challenging as a majority of gynaecologists – about 63 percent according to official 2021 figures – refuse to perform them on moral or religious grounds.

In several parts of the country, including the regions of Sicily, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and the province of Bolzano, the percentage of gynaecologists refusing to perform abortions is over 80 percent.

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