CAT/C/ITA/CO/5-6
19.
The State party should:
(a)
Take effective measures to ensure that all detainees are afforded, in
practice, all fundamental safeguards from the very outset of their deprivation of
liberty, in conformity with international standards, including the right to access to a
lawyer, particularly during the investigation and interrogation stages, the right to
have the assistance of an interpreter if necessary, and the right to promptly inform a
relative or any other person of their choice of their arrest;
(b)
foreigners;
Expand the criteria for access to legal aid, especially in the case of
(c)
Reduce the maximum period during which a person may be held in
custody following arrest on a criminal charge, before being brought before a judicial
authority, even in exceptional circumstances, to less than the present five days;
(d)
Ensure officials’ compliance with registration requirements.
Non-refoulement
20.
The Committee notes the efforts made by the State party to respond to the large
influx of asylum seekers and irregular migrants, including high numbers of unaccompanied
minors, arriving in its territory. It is, however, concerned at reports alleging that the State
party may have acted in breach of the principle of non-refoulement and carried out
collective returns during the period under review. Of particular concern are the forcible
returns of irregular migrants in application of readmission agreements providing for
accelerated identification procedures, such as the agreement signed by the Italian and
Sudanese police authorities on 3 August 2016, which led to the repatriation on 24 August
2016 of dozens of Sudanese nationals, who allegedly belonged to a persecuted minority.
The Committee also notes with concern that the procedure of expulsion on grounds of
national security continues not to provide for sufficient and effective safeguards against the
risk of refoulement, which is in addition to the lack of suspensive effect of the appeals
against expulsion decisions. In this connection, the Committee notes that the European
Court of Human Rights has found in several cases that the expulsion of foreign nationals
under article 3.1 of Law No. 144/2005 violated the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment
under article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms (the European Convention on Human Rights) (O. v. Italy, Saadi v. Italy, CBZ v.
Italy and Trabelsi v. Italy). Furthermore, the Committee is concerned that Decree Law No.
13 of 17 February 2017 (subsequently Law No. 46 of 13 April 2017, i.e. the MinnitiOrlando decree) has introduced measures to accelerate asylum procedures, reducing the
number of possible appeals and thereby limiting the protection afforded to asylum seekers,
and speeding up deportations of rejected asylum seekers. Finally, in the light of the
judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Hirsi Jamaa and others v. Italy (art. 3),
in which, inter alia, two violations of article 3 of the European Convention on Human
Rights were found because the applicants had been exposed to the risk of ill-treatment in
Libya and of repatriation to Somalia and Eritrea, the Committee takes note of the State
party’s statement that there will no longer be “pushback” to Libya of migrants and asylum
seekers intercepted on boats in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian maritime forces (art. 3).
21.
Recalling the Committee’s previous recommendations (see CAT/C/ITA/CO/4,
paras. 10–12), the State party should:
(a)
Ensure that in practice no one may be expelled, returned or extradited to
another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would
run a personal, foreseeable risk of being subjected to torture;
(b)
Ensure that all asylum seekers have the opportunity for an individual
review and are protected from refoulement and collective return;
(c)
Amend its legislation in order to provide rejected asylum seekers with an
effective judicial remedy with automatic suspensive effect against expulsion decisions;
4