PRODUCTION: RaiNews
COUNTRY: Italy
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 19′
MADE BY: Marika Ikonomu, Alessandro Leone, Simone Manda

This documentary chronicles the state of Italy's CPRs, the facilities where migrants are locked up, without having committed any crime, just because they do not have a residence permit, while waiting to be returned to their countries of origin.

In Italy there are 10 of these centres, which can accommodate about 1,300 people. Data from the Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Detained or Deprived of their Liberty show that most of those detained in these facilities come from Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and, in general, from North Africa.

The CPRs resemble prisons, but the conditions in which the detainees live are even worse, because they do not have the same rights that the prison system provides. Their management is entrusted to private and multinational cooperatives, which obtain contracts for millions of euros of public funds, reducing basic services in order to increase profits

This system has serious consequences on the lives of prisoners: self-harm incidents occur every day, and nine people have died in the last three years alone.

The documentary investigates some of these deaths, the relationship between the state - which is supposed to ensure that human rights are respected inside the centres - and the private companies in charge, showing images from inside the centres collected by undercover cameras.

The documentary was made with the contribution of the Roberto Morrione Prize.