Illegal immigrant returning home arrested

Prisons Ombudsman Marroni: Law prescribes useless sentences against foreigners ,

13th January 2010: An immigrant in Italy who got tired of living in the country illegally and decided to return home has been arrested.

Khadim, a Senegalese who has been in the country illegally for eight years was arrested at the airport while trying to board a flight back home, and taken to Civitavecchia prison.

He will now have to spend seven months in prison before being deported using the taxpayers’ money. Khadim used to live and do casual work in Naples. He had also been given several expulsion orders but he never left the country.

Tired of living as an illegal immigrant, Khadim’s friends helped him buy the air ticket and booked the flight for Senegal.

Following his arrest, Khadim requested to be expelled as an alternative measure to imprisonment, but the magistrates declined.

“Khadim was leaving Italy, but he is now imprisoned for not having left our country,” says Prisons Ombudsman Angiolo Marroni.

Khadim’s case is like a senseless story, but that’s exactly what the law prescribes, Mr. Marroni says.

The law, he says, seems to be against foreigners to a point of prescribing useless sentences which cause further suffering to foreigners.

He is calling for a careful revision of the practical effects of some laws in order to avoid imprisonment as a solution to immigration related offences.