To stop Italy’s xenophobic treatment of refugees, the UN should first hold Australia accountable

Source: QZ, 30/09/2018

Since Italy’s government�`run by a Five Star Movement-Lega
coalition�`was inaugurated on June 1, things have changed rather
dramatically in the handling of migrants and refugees coming from
Libya to Italy.
Matteo Salvini�`the vice prime minister, home affairs minister, and de
facto leader of the government, though the prime minister is
officially Giuseppe Conte�`remains very clear: Regardless of the legal
or human implications, he is determined to keep his xenophobic
campaign promises, and enforce a hard line against migrants.
In the past few months, Italy’s harbors have been closed to rescue
boats, and search-and-rescue programs have been ostracized. The
government has hailed these developments as remarkable successes.
About 70% of Italians support its actions when it comes to
immigration. Migrants (including minors) have drowned in plain sight
(link in Italian) and languished for days in rescue boats while
battling serious health conditions. Some have been sent back to Libya
to face inhumane conditions, including concentration camps and
possibly being sold as slaves.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has launched an
investigation into Italy’s treatment of migrants and refugees, leading
Salvini to threaten defunding of the United Nations.
Italy’s government is toying with serious violations of both
international and Italian law. Salvini and some of his compatriots are
under investigation for instigating racial hatred, but they haven’t
budged; in fact, one of the prosecutors who investigated Salvini has
been sued by his allies. Indeed Salvini has used the lawsuits against
him as an opportunity to reiterate (employing the Trumpian motto
“Italians first”) that he intends to “defend Italy from the invasion”
of foreigners and would proudly face an investigation for that.
No way
Salvini’s approach, he has declared, has a clear source of
inspiration. It’s Australia’s “No way” policy, which involves
intercepting migrant vessels heading to Australia and deporting their
passengers to offshore detention centers on remote Pacific islands.
The Australian government has been transporting refugee seekers to
such facilities since 2001. Two centers on Nauru and Manus islands
have been operating as effective concentration camps for hundreds of
asylum seekers since 2012. Breaking international treaties it’s
ratified, Australia refuses to relocate such individuals within its
borders.
“Australia’s offshore processing policies have brought misery and
suffering to 1,600 people who remain trapped on remote Pacific
islands, the vast majority of whom have been found to be refugees,”
says Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s Australia director.
Investigations have found cruelty and human-rights violations to be
commonplace in the detention centers, she notes.
Australia’s policies, which its authorities like to call “harsh but
effective,” have led to attempted suicide by children as young as 10,
and adults killing themselves out of desperation.
The acts of keeping migrants in captivity and refusing asylum seekers
entrance into a country�`as Australia has been doing, and Italy aspires
to do�`are not compatible with the 1951 Convention Relating on the
Status of Refugees, a UN treaty that builds upon the 14th article of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes the right
to seek asylum from persecution in other countries.
Yet Australia, which Pearson calls “a world leader in how to be cruel
to refugees,” has been able to get away with its behavior with no
concrete repercussions, even when documents emerged showing horrific
abuse conducted in its imprisonment camps.