Migrations, funds for the detention of people fleeing poverty, war zones and climate change are increasing

ROME – The financial forecasts for 2023 show an increase in spending on detention centers for repatriation (CPR). You learn it from the site of Openpolis. It is a political choice: to invest in detention rather than in inclusion and regularization. With the budget law, the funds for the CPR increase by 5.39 million euros for this year that has just begun. These are structures that have no other purpose than detention, often of long duration. In 2021, 4,489 people passed through the Cprs. Only 49.7% of people detained in 2021 were actually repatriated. The Cpr are detention facilities in which foreign citizens without a valid residence permit are imprisoned, waiting to be repatriated.

The ineffective return policy. Which affects less than half of the prisoners, they force the people inside them into a limbo that lasts many months. In addition to retaining them, the system does not offer migrants themselves any opportunities for integration and also has significant management costs. Investing in CPR therefore constitutes an unsuccessful political choice, as well as one oriented towards exclusion. In theory, according to current legislation, a foreigner should only be detained for the time strictly necessary. In fact, however, in many cases the administrative detention within these structures extends over time. Overall, just half of these people have actually been repatriated. A figure that varies widely from center to center: it ranges from 18% of the CPR of Turin to 88% of that of Caltanissetta.

Over the years there has always been a low percentage. Over the years the percentage has always remained at a very low level. According to the data collected by the national guarantor, the highest quota was reached in 2017 (before that year there was another type of structure: the Cie), when 58.6% of the migrants present in detention centers were repatriated administrative. Also in 2020 the figure stood at 52.9%. In all other years, however, it did not reach 50%. The lowest share in this sense was reached in 2018: 43.2%.

The Cprs in the new financial balance sheet. The increase is specifically foreseen for chapter 7351 (“expenses of extraordinary maintenance, construction, acquisition, improvements and adaptations of buildings”), management plan 2 (“expenses for the construction, acquisition, completion, adaptation and the restructuring of buildings and infrastructures intended for identification and expulsion centres, reception centers for irregular foreigners and asylum seekers; expenses relating to the purchase of equipment for the centers or functional to them and for study and typing tasks).

A further increase for 2024. The increase is particularly evident for the year 2024 (+14.39 million euros, or 46.18 million instead of the 31.79 of the 2022 forecast). In the case of 2023, on the other hand, we are talking precisely about a difference of 5.39 million euros. These range from 26.79 million in the 2022 forecasts to 32.18 in the 2023 ones. In total, this is an increase of 19.79 million for these two years, compared to the figures established last year. Which also already constituted an increase compared to previous forecasts.

Administrative detention: sentenced to enforced idleness. Repatriation detention centers are not reception facilities, but detention facilities where migrants are held after receiving an expulsion order. Detainees without having actually committed any crime and with no prospects after their release. A strategy that has no advantages for the migrants themselves, who are not directed towards any path of regularization, nor for society as a whole. The security setting of the de facto structures condemns the people detained to live in a condition of permanent forced idleness, without the possibility of training, recreation or encounters with the realities of organized civil society, which, even if willing to organize initiatives, regularly meets refuse requests for access to facilities.

The national guarantor for persons deprived of their personal liberty. In addition to their configuration which, as the guarantor denounces, is not respectful of human dignity, the Cprs are designed as temporary detention centres, in theory of short duration, and therefore do not have the educational and recreational courses of other detention facilities. On the other hand, they do not aim to include prisoners, who, once released, are in any case “irregular”. If they are not repatriated, they are exposed to lawlessness and crime. Also, as the report highlights Black holes from the Italian coalition of freedom and civil rights (Cild), these are also structures that have high management costs. We are talking about 44 million euros for the period 2018-2021.