The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a group of independent experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, completed today a two-week official visit to Italy. “We have enjoyed in all respects the fullest cooperation from the Italian Government and have been allowed to visit all places of detention we had requested and to interview in private detainees of our choice, without any restriction.”, they told journalists today in Rome.
The main reason for the Working Group’s visit to Italy, which included Rome, Naples, Milan and Eastern Sicily (Caltanissetta and Cassibile), was to obtain first hand information on the deprivation of freedom in centres for irregular migrants and asylum seekers.