Italy

21/10/2024 – 13/11/2024

• On 11 November, 109 people reached Lampedusa in eight separate disembarkations in just 24 hours, following a total of 300 arrivals the day before. This follows a surge in arrivals the week before, when more than 1,000 people arrived and 295 were rescued by the Ocean Viking and Sea-Eye-5.
• On 6 November, Italian prosecutors have requested the trial of six soldiers over a shipwreck off the coast of Calabria in February 2023 that tragically killed at least 94 migrants, including 35 minors. They face charges of negligent shipwreck and manslaughter for alleged “inactivity” in their actions.
• On 6 November, the Italian Navy ship Libra boat left Lampedusa to take 8 men, believed to be from Egypt and Bangladesh, to the Shengjin center in Albania. Upon arrival to Albania, one of the eight migrants was diagnosed with a psychological disorder, considering him vulnerable and was therefore returned to Italy. On 11 November, the Court of Rome ruled that the remaining seven migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt must be returned to Italy. The judges found that the decree passed by Meloni, declaring 19 countries as safe, is not in compliance with EU law.
• On 4 and 5 November, 208 migrants were rescued and taken to Lampedusa in four separate operations. Nearly 800 people arrived in Lampedusa and the Calabrian city of Crotone over the two days.
• On 4 November, a Sicilian Court ruled that Egypt could not be considered a safe country, citing serious human rights violations, including the systematic use of torture by the police, violence against human rights defenders and journalists, and discrimination against women, religious minorities and LGBTQIA+ people. The decision concerned one Egyptian asylum seekers, but according to this interpretation asylum applications from Egypt cannot be processed in an accelerated procedure, as is the case in the Albanian centers. 
• On 26 October, an SOS Humanity ship rescued a person in international waters. The ship was immediately given the port of disembarkation of Salerno, which is 3 days sailing, unable to conduct other rescue operations. Later a closer port was assigned, but it shows how limited the NGOs are for rescue operations in Italy.
• On 21 October, the Council of Europe issued a report accusing the Italian police of racial profiling, particularly against the Roma community and people of African descent.
• On 21 October, the Italian government approved a new law-decree of ‘safe’ countries aiming to removes the obstacles that the ECJ Court Ruling of 4^th October  had put in the way of the Albanian deal a few days earlier. On 29 October, the judges of the Court of Bologna decided to refer to the European Court of Justice the new decree. The Bologna judges are asking the European Court to decide whether the decree should be applied or not, because they believe that the criteria used by the government to designate a country as safe “contravene” European law.
• On 20 October, a police officer shot dead a 26-year-old Malian man, Moussa Diarra. The circumstances of his death remain unclear, but it is certainly part of a systematic anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy.