Europe’s anti-torture watchdog slams Italy over migrant detention abuses

ROME — The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee on Friday released a report criticizing Italy’s treatment of migrants in local detention centers, citing cases of physical ill-treatment, excessive force and the use of psychotropic drugs on detainees. In its report Friday, the CPT was also critical of the “widespread practice” of administering unprescribed psychotropic drugs to detainees in Potenza, one of the four centers visited. The report also highlights “the prolonged handcuffing of persons apprehended on the territory during their transfer to a.” In its report, the anti-torture watchdog recommended Italy to remove the “carceral elements” from the centers and to ensure their proper maintenance, notably the sanitary facilities. It also showed the critical lack of activities offered to migrants held in the centers, with minimal efforts to offer them “a few activities of a recreational nature.” The report concludes that the committee’s findings, “notably in relation to the very poor material conditions, the absence of a regime of activities, the disproportionate security approach, the variable quality of health care provision and the lack of transparency of the management of CPRs by private contractors,” call into question the application of such a model by Italy in an extra-territorial setting, such as in Albania.