Most practices of consular protection and assistance concern citizens facing issues with local justice system, or being part of accidents; repatriation of remains; search for lost conationals; assistance to italian parents to whom a foreign partner (or double citizen) have taken their child away from, and moved him abroad.
For accidents happening abroad, Consular and Diplomat representatives assure sure that citizens will receive appropriate medical treatments in the location, that the relatives will be informed, and that assistance will be provided in case repatriation to Italy is needed.
In case of citizens arrested and detained abroad, the Consulate can:
- Visit the inmate;
- Suggest an advocate;
- Establish connections with family members in Italy;
- Provide medical assistance, food, books and newspapers to the inmate, when this is necessary and allowed by local laws;
- Intervene for the transfer of the inmate to Italy, when the citizen is detained in signers countries of the Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons;
- Intervene in specific cases to process a request of clemency;
The Consulate can NOT:
- Intervene in court on behalf of the citizen;
- Pay legal expenses of the inmate.
International Child Abduction
The issue of international child abduction has gained increasing importance in recent times, both due to the rise in separations, often conflictual, between individuals of different or dual citizenship, and the heightened sensitivity with which the problem is perceived in our country.
The only compelling tool available to the parent of the same nationality for the recovery of the child is the Hague Convention of 25.10.1980 (Central Authority for Italy is the Department of Juvenile Justice at the Ministry of Justice). In cases where the Convention is not applicable, the Ministry fully exercises its institutional functions by modulating interventions according to the specificities of each case.
Searches for fellow citizens abroad
Based on Law 675/96 on the privacy of personal data, no public entity can disclose information about individuals to private citizens without the consent of the individuals concerned. Therefore, once the sought-after person is identified, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requests the consent of the individual to inform the requester of the information. In some countries, such as the United States of America, local privacy laws do not allow the dissemination of information about individuals residing in their territory. It is therefore necessary to verify on a case-by-case basis the applicable law. Within these legal limits, it is possible to initiate a search in one of the following ways:
- Sending a fax to Office IV of the Directorate General of Italians Abroad at the numbers: 06 36 91 86 09 / 06 36 91 86 28;
- Sending an email to the Assistance Office of this Consulate;
- Calling the number 06 36 91 29 30 from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, specifying your data, the data of the person you are searching for, and the reason for wanting to locate them