The Italian immigration police on Sunday escorted two Gambian citizens, with the initials S.C and J.E, to Banjul following a court expulsion order citing various violations of Italian laws. Both were detained in Vicenza Police Headquarters, after being convicted of numerous crimes including thefts and robbery, assault, and drug dealing. The Italian police said the deportation was carried out in collaboration with the Gambia Consulate of Milan.
On the reason for the deportations, the Italian police said the first Gambian, with the initials S.C, who is a 25-year-old born in Gambia, had committed several thefts and robberies, one of which was in 2021 in a supermarket in Vicenza. During the said robbery, S.C seriously injured a cashier.
Earlier in 2020, in Schio, S.C attacked an elderly man and robbed his wallet. He later committed housebreaking in Dueville and, after being chased and stopped by the police, resisted arrest by a public officer. Of all these criminal episodes, he had bargained for 2 years of imprisonment which is enough to deny him a stay in Italy.
However, S.C through his lawyer had appealed, claiming that he did not deserve repatriation as he was well integrated in Italy. In reality, he landed in Lampedusa in 2016 and had immediately started living by expedients and committing crimes. The court rejected his opposition to the expulsion, precisely on the basis of his social dangerousness.
The other Gambian, 43-year-old J.E, was also seeking political asylum and came from a host community in Milan. In 2017 he started drug peddling and during an operation to combat widespread crime carried out in the Lombard capital, he was found in possession of two knives with a 25-centimeter blade and a hammer.
In 2018 he was sentenced again for the sale of hashish and other narcotic substances as well as for receiving stolen goods and resisting a public official’s arrest. Having moved to Vicenza and being an irregular alien in Italy, he was deemed unsuitable for obtaining international protection as he continued to commit a crime until he was arrested for accumulated penalties.
The two Gambian offenders were then expelled and escorted by plane to their country of origin by the men of the Vicenza. From the Vicenza prison, they were transferred to the “Leonardo Da Vinci” airport of Rome Fiumicino. From there, the two were flown to Germany for a technical stopover and, later escorted by Vicentine agents to Gambia, where they were handed over to the immigration authorities.
