Clinical Forensic Pathologists and the Assessment of Refugees for Signs of Maltreatment and Torture : Italian First Steps

Italy receives a large part of European immigration and Milano gives hospitality to many immigrant refugees which request political asylum so much so that it has developed one of the most important Commissions for the evaluation of refugees at a national level (Commissione Territoriale per il riconoscimento della Protezione Internazionale di Milano, Ministero dell’Interno). Up to now forensic pathologists have rarely been called upon. Recently the Commission dealing with such requests for the City of Milano has recruited forensic pathologists in order to complete a working group already composed of internal affairs officers, psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. This presentation wishes to share the first experiences in this sense, including the obstacles encountered in establishing a fruitful cooperation between forensic pathologists, government officials, psychologists and social workers as well as the pitfalls and difficulties in producing objective, clear and unambiguous reports for such purposes, and in living up to the expectations of politicians which expect pathologists to easily pick out non-torture related injuries and self-inflicted ones.