Norwegian asylum groups are fighting a proposal to build a special detention centre close to Oslo airport to hold asylum-seekers whose claims have been rejected as well as those who arrive without identity papers. In Australia, detainees, mostly Iraqis and Afghanis, are held in guarded compounds. Italy fights back Across Europe, the internment of asylum-seekers is being opposed. The year 2000 started with a new militancy in Italy. Some 20000 people demonstrated in Milan and there were extraordinary scenes in Sicily when 3000 people stormed the Serraino Vulpitta centre, leading to 27 arrests.
Detention is relatively new in Italy.
Under the Turco-Napolitano immigration law of 1998, eleven detention centres were established, many administered by the Red Cross. Intolerable living conditions were at their worst in the North where containers, stifling hot in summer and freezing in winter, were used to intern non-EU 'illegals', supposedly for no more than 30 days while their asylum claims were processed. At the Ponte Galeria camp in Rome, there were flea and scabies infestations and outbreaks of food poisoning. A parliamentarian found 'signs that inmates had been beaten and walls were spattered with dry blood'. Following the dramatic protests, Milan's Via Corelli and Brindisi's Francavilla Fontana have been closed down as the government announced a charter of living conditions to 'guarantee safety and human dignity'.