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Critique from organisations involved in the health care of people on the move  

The Italy-Albania deal violates the code of medical ethics and human rights and puts the physical and psychological health of migrants at risk. Several health and search and rescue organisations criticize the deal and appeal to operators and health professionals not to be complicit in the agreement and its violations.  

Most of the survivors our medical and care teams operating in the central Mediterranean treated have suffered physical, psychological or sexual violence including torture and rape on their journey to Europe. As direct victims or witnesses of human rights abuses in their country of origin, transit through the desert, detention in Libya or Tunisia and the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean, they are at severe risk of developing mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder. 

According to the procedures laid down in the agreement, on board the military vessel Libra and on board the Italian patrol boats, the conditions do not exist for an adequate assessment of a person’s state of health to be carried out. In fact, there are no medical facilities, no private confidential screening spaces, and no equipment to diagnose or treat critical medical conditions and pathologies, acute or chronic.  

Finally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) places of administrative detention are a risk factor for mental and physical health, in particular due to the possible spread of infectious diseases and the low standards of care and treatment even of non-communicable diseases. 

Therefore, we consider the practice of medical and health ‘selection’ as a criterion for deportation to Albania unacceptable. Furthermore, we stress the ambiguity of the role played by the institutions involved in this system.  

Health workers should not be involved in such a discriminating and degrading system for human beings. Our profession must be exercised with respect for the Code of Ethics and human rights. 

Therefore, we condemn the Italian institutions, such as the Ministry of Health, which supported the preparation and implementation of the Italy-Albania agreement, and we harshly criticise CISOM, USMAF and IOM who are becoming complicit in this practice in violation of human rights and the Code of Medical Deontology. We also ask the Italian National Federation of the Orders of Surgeons and Dentists (FNOMCeO), the National Federation of the Orders of the Nursing Professions (FNOPI), the Orders of Psychologists, the scientific societies in the medical field, and all the relevant medical and health institutions to formally and publicly distance themselves from these practices.