Today marks the 7th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, so I thought it timely to reflect on the Italian Government’s position on this contentious matter. 

Italian policy currently reflects the broad European view of “non assistance with Guantanamo Bay detainees”, although important questions were raised in June 2008 regarding the Italian secret service’s role in 2002-3 in the forced abduction of 100 detainees under the US Government’s policy of forced rendition.  But I’m digressing…

Of particular interest in an Italian context, is the Dec/2008 question posed by Senator Marco Perduca of the libertarian (centre-left) Radical Party to the Minister of Foreign Arrairs, about the future of seventeen ethnic Chinese Uyghurs who have been cleared by the US for repatriation but who face almost certain torture and execution on their return to China.

Senators Perduca and Donatella Poretti both called for Italy to break away from the standard European position - non-assistance with Guantanamo Bay detainees - and follow the Portugese decision to offer asylum to ex-inmates.  Perduca said that Italy should “come forward on its own” and provide hospitality for detainees who “run serious risks if repatrtiated”.

In response, the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on 16/Dec 2008 that Italy had not been asked by the US to accept any detainees.