Italy

06/03/2025 – 02/04/2025

• The Italian government is considering transforming its detention centres in Albania into repatriation centres (CPRs). However, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi contradicted this idea, saying that an existing center was enough. Doubts remain about the feasibility of the project, in particular because of the need to amend the Italy-Albania protocol. An “Albania Decree” is to be discussed on 28 March. 
• On 18 March, off the coast of Lampedusa, six migrants lost their lives and forty others were reported missing following a shipwreck. Ten other people were rescued by the Italian coast guard. According to testimonies, the boat had left Sfax. On board were nationals of Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Gambia. 
• On 12 March, the media outlet Nawaat published an article denouncing the situation of Tunisian migrants in Italy. Indeed, these migrants are detained in detention centres in inhumane conditions, where they are exposed to various forms of violence. These crimes seem to leave the Tunisian authorities indifferent, who do not guarantee any legal protection to their nationals.  
• On 11 March, an Italian court upheld the suspension of the administrative detention of the vessel Geo Barents. This detention, imposed in August 2024, was suspended in September by the Salerno court, considering that it endangered the humanitarian objectives of the ship. Since December 2024, MSF has ceased its operations, due to difficulties related to Italian laws and policies. 
• On March 8, International Women’s Day, France 24 released a video denouncing the appalling reality faced by women, especially Nigerian women who find themselves trapped in protest networks once they arrive in Italy. The Neapolitan periphery is one of the epicentres of trafficking in women in Italy. According to the IOM, nearly 80 per cent of Nigerian women who land in Italy are victims of sexual exploitation.  
• On 7 March, the government of the ultra-conservative Giorgia Meloni was ordered by the Italian courts to compensate migrants who, in 2018, had been prevented from disembarking on dry land. She protested against this decision and declared on her account X: “The government will have to compensate, with the money of honest Italian citizens who pay taxes, people who have tried to enter Italy illegally”. 
• On 5 March, the trial concerning the sinking of Cutro began. In February 2023, following the Italian Coast Guard’s decision not to intervene to rescue a capsized boat, 94 people, including 35 minors, lost their lives. Six soldiers from the customs police and the coast guard will have to answer for their responsibility.