La detenzione amministrativa degli stranieri. Nuove frontiere in materia di liberta' personale

This thesis focuses on the issue of the legality of migrants' detention immediately following disembarkation on EU shores. Under Italian practice, this phase is one of those where access to justice and legal advice are poorly protected, so that under the justification of necessity and urgency, cases of unlawful deprivation of liberty frequently take place without any legal basis and judicial review. This has been the case at the Immigration Centre located on Lampedusa Island in recent years, where under the label of †˜reception' in reality migrants have been subjected to unlawful detention. As personally observed by the author, who carried out some fieldwork research within this Centre, the above situation has represented a case of arbitrary detention in breach of the principles established in the Italian Constitution and in International Conventions, in primis in the case law under the European Convention of Human Rights. This thesis builds on the Lampedusa case study with the aim of suggesting better ways to protect migrants' personal liberty. Starting from the evaluation of the general legal safeguards available in the field of immigration detention in Italy, this thesis criticizes the habeas corpus system, specifically addressed to those who are in limbo' between the arrival at the border of Europe and the determination of their individual legal status. It concludes that in Italy a migrant's right to personal liberty is undermined by the lack of legal remedies in the Italian system.