Born in Catania, a young woman returned to Italy on a boat after her father took her to Tunis. Now, a court will determine if she can stay in the city of her birth, given that she has received a deportation order from the police chief of Trapani.
The hearing before the first civil section of the Catania Court is scheduled for January 24, 2024, regarding the appeal against the ruling of the Justice of the Peace who declared himself incompetent to handle the opposition to a deportation decree issued by the Chief of Police of Trapani against a twenty-year-old born in Catania to Tunisian parents. She had returned to the island on a boat that landed in Pantelleria to reunite with her mother, who had stayed in Catania.
Judge Rosario Cuprì deemed that "there are no serious reasons to suspend the execution of the measure" and set the appearance hearing for January 24 next year. At the heart of the matter, as reported by CataniaToday, is the story of the twenty-year-old whom her father, after a series of disputes with his wife, had forced to return with him to Tunisia. Once she turned eighteen, she initiated the process to return to Italy and be with her mother, who continued to send money but failed to obtain the necessary permits. So, she decided to pay traffickers and board one of the boats crossing the Mediterranean. On August 25, six days after her arrival in Pantelleria, a deportation decree was issued. The young woman, free to return to Catania with her mother who had come to get her, filed an appeal, but the judge of the peace in Catania declared himself incompetent for the territory, considering her rooted in Trapani.
Against this decision, the young woman's lawyer, Attorney Giuseppe Lipera, filed an appeal with the Civil Court, noting, among other things, that "the girl was born in Catania, has always lived in this city, except when her father forced her to return to Tunisia," and that "any 'clandestine stay' would have occurred in the city of Catania." "In Catania," explains the lawyer, "the girl attended kindergarten, learned to walk and talk until, due to misunderstandings and domestic disputes, the father, without any notice, arbitrarily returned to Tunisia, taking her with him, unbeknownst to the mother. The complaints filed by the mother against her ex-husband were of no avail."