• Faver Agyei (right), 32, comforts her friend Alima Mohamed, 22, at a camp in Tunisia near the Libyan border. Mohamed’s husband, also from Ghana, died along with 200 others after their ship capsized trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya on June 1, 2011.

    © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch
    EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
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  • Human Rights in Italy

    Italy’s response to the tens of thousands of boat migrants arriving from Tunisia and Libya was mixed: it rescued many at sea, provided access to asylum for arrivals from Libya, and permits for early arrivals from Tunisia. But reception conditions were frequently extremely poor, disputes with Malta and NATO complicated some rescue operations, and later arrivals from Tunisia were detained and deported. A shooting spree killing two African migrants and injuring three others and attacks on a Roma camp in December highlighted the failure by authorities to tackle violence and discrimination towards migrants and Roma.   

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Italy

  • EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    Jan 22, 2012
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
  • Italy’s Complacency on Racism Puts Lives at Risk
    Jan 13, 2012
    A 50-year-old man with links to the extreme right opens fire on Senegalese street vendors in Florence, killing two and seriously wounding three others. He then kills himself. An angry mob attacks a Roma camp in Turin after a teen-aged girl falsely claims she had been raped by two Roma men.
  • Letter to Italian Foreign Minister on Camp Ashraf in Iraq
    Dec 15, 2011
    We are writing to you before the December 31 announced closure of Camp Ashraf (also known as Camp New Iraq) to urge the government of Italy to take proactive steps to help prevent the stand-off between the Iraqi government and the leadership of the Mohjahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from deteriorating further at a critical moment in Iraq’s precarious transition to democratic rule.
  • EU: Summit Misses Opportunity on Migration
    Jun 24, 2011
    The European Council summit that concluded on June 24, 2011, made no significant progress in addressing serious deficiencies in EU asylum and migration policies.
  • EU: Put Rights at Heart of Migration Policy
    Jun 20, 2011
    European Union (EU) heads of state meeting in Brussels later this week should put human rights at the heart of EU migration and asylum policy.
  • Italy: Leadership Needed on Rights
    Jun 16, 2011
    Italy should take concrete steps to improve its human rights record and carry out the pledges it made as a new member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
  • Letter to the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Franco Frattini
    Jun 15, 2011
  • NATO: Investigate Fatal Boat Episode
    May 9, 2011
    NATO and its member countries should conduct a full investigation into allegations of failure to rescue a disabled boat filled with migrants fleeing Libya.
  • Dying to leave Libya
    May 4, 2011
    A man named Mohammed posted this plea on the Migrants at Sea website three days after a rickety boat capsized on 6 April in rough seas just 39 miles from Lampedusa: "i wont to know if my brother is there with the eritreans died in the sea his name is sebah tahir nuru." The long-expected exodus by sea from war-torn Libya has begun, and with it the tragic and avoidable loss of life.
  • With a Migrant Crisis Looming, the EU Should Learn from its Past Mistakes
    Apr 6, 2011
    I was not prepared to document torture and severe abuses when I started researching the human rights situation for migrants in Europe. After all, I was working on Western Europe, the developed world with a rule of law, independent judiciaries, functioning social services, and oversight bodies.
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