Italy’s migrant jails are squalid and chaotic. A young man from Guinea was desperate to escape

ROME — It was still dark and quiet outside when Ousmane Sylla performed his last prayer in the courtyard of an Italian migrant jail. ”May I rest in peace.” Writings left by Ousmane Sylla, a 21-year-old Guinean, are seen on a wall of the Ponte Galeria center in Rome, March 19, 2024, at the site of his apparent suicide. Sylla’s death in February shined a spotlight on the conditions inside these de-facto jails for migrants, which have been condemned by lawyers and migration activists as “black holes” of human rights violations. “He had the right at least to call his family and tell us.” SQUALID CONDITIONS, VIOLENCE Enclosed by tall metal bars, detainees at the Ponte Galeria detention and deportation center near Rome, where Sylla died, walk around in circles and kick balls to pass time. A note written by Ousmane Sylla on a wall of the detention center where he died “If I die, I’d like my body to be sent back to Africa,” Sylla had written on the jail wall.