September 14th, 2011. Tina Richard is a 28-year-old Nigerian woman from Kanu. She grew up in a Christian family and fled to Italy at the age of fifteen after the murder of her parents by a powerful and wealthy citizen of Kanu who wanted to marry the young girl. Tina received help from the local bishop of Kanu and arrived in Italy for the first time in 1998.
A year later however, she was deported back to Nigeria as an illegal immigrant. Upon her return to Nigeria she was kidnapped by a man, raped, tortured, and kept prisoner in his home for months. After managing to escape from the brute’s home, Tina set off on a journey through Sierra Leone and Liberia, reaching Morocco and then Spain, where she finally boarded a boat for Genoa in September 2003.
She then went to the police station in Rome to forward a request for international protection but was told to come back in a month. Tina however is terrified she would be deported once again, and may have to face more violence and torture, hence she decides not to return to the police authorities. Instead she lives in hiding, and works on the streets as a prostitute in order to pay her way.
In 2011, she met Loredana Briganti, a lawyer, and told her her story.
Assisted by the lawyer, she decided to officially present her request for asylum at the police headquarters of Teramo. Last July, the Caserta commission, composed of local representatives of the Interior Ministry and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, turned down her request for international protection, explaining their refusal by the fact that Tina can turn to the Nigerian authorities for help (despite her story being plausible, and the fact that her parents’ murderer - protected by the local authorities - is still at large and bent on revenge for her refusal to become his wife).
"To deny international protection to a refugee who has a well-founded fear of further persecution at home, and whose body bears tangible signs of torture and harassment, is a blatant abuse that contrasts with the Geneva Convention, the Italian Constitution, and all the international protocols relating to people’s fundamental rights, " say Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of the humanitarian organization EveryOne Group.
”Tina Richard is a young woman who has suffered terrible abuse, and it is the duty of a state that claims to be civilized to protect her and ensure her a dignified existence. Italy has already made the mistake of deporting her in 1999, a mistake that resulted in Tina being subjected to further rape, torture and hardship. In Nigeria, these kinds of abuses against women - as in forced marriages - are unfortunately very common, and what is more, the local Criminal Code permits husbands to use physical corrective measures and other ill-treatment in order to 'redeem' their wives.
“We must also remember that throughout Nigeria female genital mutilation is a common practice, and that the religious authorities - the imams - have created a “de jure” equality for women that does not correspond at all to “de facto” equality as demonstrated in a recent study published by the African Studies Quarterly, to which many other African African NGOs contributed. This report clearly shows that there is serious discrimination and abuse taking place against women in Nigeria. This has been confirmed, despite recent denials by the Nigerian authorities and its representatives in Italy, by the case of Kate Omoregbe Kate, who was recently granted asylum in our country after the mobilization of the highest offices of state."
Tina Richard, represented by the lawyer Loredana Briganti, will appeal against the decision taken by the commission from the Court of Naples; in the meantime Everyone Group is asking for the mobilization of civil society against Tina’s repatriation, and appealing to Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and members of the European Parliament to exert pressure on the Italian Government to stop Tina being deported again from Italy, in clear violation of international agreements.
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