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Our Coalition, in collaboration with Antigone, is currently carrying out the project “Stranieri in carcere (Foreigners in Prison)”. Its core focuses are to provide training for prison operators and volunteers on matters related to the execution of foreigners’ sentences, as well as to inform detained foreigners on necessary precautions during the health emergency.   

When drafting the project in April 2020, there were about 19,000 foreigners in prison and 250 foreigners in pre-removal centres. According to Law Decree 18/20, detained immigrants and around 5,000 foreign inmates, with a prison sentence lower than 18 months, could have access to home detention. This measure allowed for the immediate release of detainees fulfilling specific criteria, who had an available, effective and suitable domicile where they could serve their residual sentence or reside in compliance with Covid-19 containment measures. In line with these developments, the initial objective of the project was to assist incarcerated foreigners in accessing this alternative measure of special home detention. At the end of May 2020, however, the measure was modified and releases in home detention were interrupted. We hence decided to broaden the project and develop two new, more comprehensive activities, namely information provision and training on sentence execution in Covid-19 times. 

The information provision activity focuses on preventing Covid-19 spread in prisons. To this end we prepared the leaflet “Covid-19: What to do | How to protect yourself and others from Covid in prison“, which has been translated in Arabic, Albanian, French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish. On 12 October 2020, the Department of the Penitentiary Administration authorised its dissemination and has since been circulated in several facilities all over the country.

The training activity has been developed, instead, around two online sessions, which will take place on 13 November 2020 and 27 November 2020, from 3 pm to 5.30 pm, and during which we will address the following topics:

• Rights of foreigners in prison and in home detention;

• Detention in pre-removal centres after release;

• Administrative and judicial expulsions; and

• Residence permits’ renewal during and after the execution of a criminal sentence.

The training course has been organised by lawyers Elia De Caro and Gennaro Santoro, and will host as speakers Sami Aidoudi, Cristina Cecchini, Giulia Crescini, Dario Di Cecca, Lorenzo Tardella and Andrea Vitale. 

Check out the agenda of the training sessions “Stranieri in carcere (Foreigners in Prison)” and register here! 

Download the leaflet “Covid-19: What to do | How to protect yourself and others from Covid in prison“.

For more information about the training and/or the leaflet, please write to legal@cild.eu.