Summary Returns from Italy
Human Rights Watch gathered numerous testimonies alleging that Italian authorities
in the ports of Venice and Ancona have summarily returned asylum seekers and
migrants to Greece.344 “Ten persons are returned back from Italy on a daily basis,” we
were told in Patras. 345 Italy not only returns migrants and asylum seekers to Greece
outside the Dublin II regulation, it returns unaccompanied children as young as 12
without providing the child with an opportunity to file an asylum application. Twelveyear-old Nader Q. told us,
I traveled to Italy inside a truck with 15 other persons to Ancona. We
were found inside the port in Italy….The police in Italy did not discuss
with us.
We were found when they checked the ship. They sent us back into the
ship and they didn’t ask us any questions. There was no lawyer and
they just put us back on the ship. I was the youngest. There was a lot
of police…. Back on the ferry they first put us into a big room then they
brought ten of us into the toilet…. The toilet was very small. We were
all sitting and we couldn’t sleep. The ferry staff gave us macaroni to
eat and also water. I was 24 hours inside the toilet. All the adults were
strangers. I didn’t know any of them.346
Sixteen-year-old Jafar F. spent his return trip to Greece similarly: “I was locked into
the toilet downstairs. I had nothing to eat or drink. It was for one night. It was very
noisy.”347
Human Rights Watch found that Italian authorities permitted some unaccompanied
children to remain in Italy. Fourteen-year-old Wali P. was detected on a ferry in
344
Testimonies were also provided by Nader Q., Khan A., Muhsin T., and Nabi D.
345
Human Rights Watch interview, Patras, June 9, 2008 (exact name withheld).
346
Human Rights Watch interview with Nader Q., Volos, June 11, 2008.
347
Human Rights Watch interview with Jafar F., Patras, June 8, 2008.
99
Human Rights Watch December 2008
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