The head of Italy's privacy
authority, Pasquale Stanzione, on Thursday said it was necessary
to reflect on a measure in the migrant flow decree recently
approved by the government which allows security forces to
access the cell phones and other electronic devices of asylum
seekers or migrants held at repatriation centres who don't
cooperate in their identification.
Stanzione told the Lower House's first commission that he is
examining the text and that it is "appropriate to evaluate the
proportionality" of the measure and to preventively ask judicial
authorities to examine it.
He stressed that particular attention must be given to migrant
minors as access to electronic devices is also granted by the
legislation in the case of "unaccompanied foreign minors".
The flow decree approved by the cabinet earlier this month to
regulate the legal entry of foreign workers allows, among other
things, security forces to check a migrant's cell phone and
other electronic devices in a procedure the government has said
is aimed at "guaranteeing the identification of migrants or at
least their geographical origin", without the possibility of
accessing messages or "any form of communication".
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