19/12/2013 10:12
Italy, EU, investigate treatment of migrants on Lampedusa after video
Video showing a naked man being sprayed by an aid worker, apparently as part of a medical treatment and in full view of other migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa, has sparked outrage in Europe, CNN reported.
The secretly filed cellphone footage, aired on Italian state television channel RAI, shows a worker at a migrant center spraying the man while others wait for what officials said was a medical treatment designed to prevent a contagious skin condition called scabies.
While the camp manager told CNN on Wednesday that the video is misleading, the Speaker for Italy's lower house of Parliament, Laura Boldrini, said in a post on the body's Facebook page that the reported treatment of migrants was "degrading" and "not worthy of a civilized country."
"Those images cannot leave us indifferent," said Boldrini, who was the spokeswoman for several years for the U.N. refugee agency in Rome. She said efforts would be made to find those responsible and hold them accountable.
The Italian Interior Ministry ordered an inquiry Tuesday and said it expected a report from the local authorities within 24 hours.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom condemned the images -- reportedly shot by a migrant at the camp -- as "appalling and unacceptable." She said the European Commission would ask the Italian authorities to "shed full light" over what had happened.
"We have already started investigations on the deplorable conditions in many Italian detention centers, including Lampedusa, and we will not hesitate to launch an infringement procedure to make sure EU standards and obligations are fully respected," she said in a statement Wednesday.
"Our assistance and support to the Italian authorities in managing migratory flows can only be continued if the country guarantees humane and dignified reception conditions to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees."
Camp Manager Cono Gallipo told CNN Wednesday that accusations that camp staff were humiliating migrants were offensive.
"We are aware of what the video shows," Gallipo said. "But that is not exactly how things work and what really happened."
Usually, he said, migrants are given a preventative treatment for scabies inside showers contained in an enclosed cabin where greater privacy can be afforded. They are then given clean clothes to wear, Gallipo said.
But he said on the day the video was shot, which he said was December 13, migrants tired of standing in line began removing their clothes before getting inside the cabin. Some asked for the treatment to be done in the open to speed up the process.
"In retrospect we should have stopped the treatment that day," he said. "But at the prospect of either hypothetically breaching the law for omitting to give health assistance to a refugee or hypothetically breaching his/her right to privacy, I opted for the second one."