Italy: Palermo sees 39 migrant torture victims in 10 months

Rome: Nearly 40 young migrants examined by medical staff in the Italian city of Palermo said they had suffered torture in assessments completed since January 1. Six were women.

In medical examinations completed between January 1 and October 31 in Palermo, nearly 40 newly arrived asylum seekers told staff of atrocious torture on the migration route. Of them, 33 were men and six were women.

They described experiencing a form of foot-whipping known as ‘falaka’, female genital mutilation, rape, beatings using blunt objects, electrical shock resulting in serious burns and broken bones.

The average age of the victims was 25. Most had been invited to the clinic shortly after their arrival to Italy to be assessed by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff, lawyers and local healthcare personnel to receive the certification necessary to request refugee status.

Forensic medicine chief Antonina Argo, her colleague Stefania Zerbo and the researchers Valeria Tullio and Giuseppe Davide Albano recorded the accounts given by the asylum seekers.

“We have seen genital mutilations, girls raped with unwanted pregnancies, cases of minors with uncertain sexuality who fled after being rejected by their families,” Argo said.

Unaccompanied minors and women arriving via government “humanitarian corridors” were among those undergoing the multidisciplinary assessments for immediate certification as soon as they arrive in Italy.

Argo stressed that seeing such cases as soon as they arrive, “with the immediacy of the latest, most recent acts of violence and torture, makes it possible to certify the fact and the results with greater reliability”.

Most of the asylum seekers arrive from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh. Many transit through Libya, where some of the most brutal forms of torture are committed.