Last June 8th, 24 Afghan refugees were discovered by the Financial Police behind a load of watermelons in a truck coming off ship in the Port of Ancona, in Italy. They were immediately put back on the ship. On the same day and the following day, June 9th, 43 more Afghans were discovered in the streets of a nearby city, in Pesaro, and were taken to the central police station by the Carabinieri, police force and traffic police. Among them were 17 minors, or at least young people under the age of 21. According to a statement released to the Italian press by the police, the latter were put in the care of the local social services.
The other 16 adults, after being held in the immigration office at Police HQ, were issued with an expulsion notification from the Pesaro police chief.
“In the absence of documents, no one bothered to check the kinship between those under 21 and the rest of the group accompanying them. Experience in the immigration sector teaches us that many refugees, and in the case in point, those arriving from Afghanistan, reach the Italian coasts in the company of parents or other close relatives” say the leaders of EveryOne Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau. “If indeed the minors were wrongfully separated from their relatives, it would be a very serious matter, contrasting not only with the Italian Constitution and the European and international conventions on human rights, but also with the sense of civilization and human dignity that should be inherent in a democracy.” The EveryOne activists also point out that “all 40 Afghan adults were deported from Italy without being given the opportunity to make a formal application for political asylum or being offered the chance to talk to police authorities through an interpreter, or in a language they understood. According to the Pesaro police” continue Malini, Pegoraro and Picciau “the Afghans spoke neither Italian nor English (except one of them, who understood very few words of the latter) and against every legal disposition they were deprived of the opportunity to explain their reasons and report their difficult situation”.
According to what an official of the Pesaro Police told the representatives of EveryOne, the expulsion order was authorized by the Ministry of the Interior once the police had informed the Italian Government of the procedure carried out until that moment.
“We see a clear violation of articles 5, 6 and 13 of the Convention on Human Rights and the fundamental rights of the European Union, as well as article 4 of protocol 4 of the same convention.
EveryOne Group has informed the Italian and European Radical Party MPs of the incident, in order to take the matter further if necessary, and has officially asked the Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and the Minister of Defence Ignazio La Russa to explain the position of the Italian Government in the incident and their respective responsibility. Furthermore, the activists have forwarded an official request to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees asking the organization to intervene.

For further informazion:
EveryOne Group
www.everyonegroup.com ::  info@everyonegroup.com