27 Nigerian ladies found in one Italian prison

TWENTY-seven Nigerian ladies who are mostly victims of sex trafficking are currently being held in an Italian prison and risk deportation, investigation has revealed.

A visit by Reuters to the open-female section of the Ponte Galeria Centre, where the Nigerians were being detained, showed that many of them awaited response to their requests for asylum.

This came on the heels of the decision of the Italian government to open new detention centres towards speeding up deportation of illegal migrants.

One of the ladies, Isoke Edionwer, a 28-year-old Nigerian, said she was a prostitute for five years, but two years ago, she paid off her debt and lived in Naples until she was brought to the centre a few weeks ago.

“I am a changed person. I am no longer a prostitute,” she said.

Another Nigerian, Happy Idahosa, 20, was picked up by police in the city of Perugia on New Year’s eve and sent to Ponte Galeria.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I came to Italy because there is peace and freedom here and I want to stay,” Idahosa said.

Officials of the Italian government had disclosed that about 50 per cent of persons held in the new centres were likely to be deported, while others, who either could not be identified or accepted by their countries of origin might be released.

Interior Minister, Marco Minniti, noted that migrants were being detained to stop them from escaping before they were sent to their countries of origin.

Protests and difficulty identifying migrants had led to the closure of similar centres over the past few years, but on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry asked regional governments to provide a total of 1,600 beds in such centres.

Plans of the state government to hold migrants, it was learnt, included reopening of another detention centre for men at Ponte Galeria, which was destroyed by interned migrants in 2015.

Mass migrant arrivals by sea are putting Italy under increasing pressure. It is up almost 40 per cent this year after a record 181,000 who came in 2016 and more than 175,000 are being housed in shelters for asylum seekers.

Senator Luigi Manconi of the ruling Democratic Party said the new style detention centres had been phased out previously because officials working there had failed to determine the real identity and nationality of most migrants for deportation.

“If they did not work before, the solution is not to create a bunch of new ones,” he told Reuters outside the Ponte Galeria centre’s gate, which is guarded by soldiers and police.

In particular, victims of sex trafficking should be helped, not locked up, Manconi said.

“Why aren’t they being protected? Are they a threat to the state? No!”

Between 45 and 50 per cent of those held in the new centres were likely to be deported, officials said.

Others either cannot be identified or are not accepted by their countries of origin and must be released.

Some 4,000 were deported in 2015, but there are no official number yet for 2016.