IRCT REGIONAL REPORT 2016 In CIR’s experience, torture victims are not systematically identified in Italy as it largely happens on an ad-hoc basis depending on the competence and training of the relevant authorities.15 Torture victims may never be identified and may go through the entire procedure without ever bringing up their experiences to involuntary avoidance and disassociation – both common psychological consequences of torture. Once identified, torture victims are provided with special procedural guarantees, including prioritised interview times. This means that their application will normally take precedent over others. This is also the case when the asylum authorities receive MLRs indicating that torture and ill-treatment has taken place. One of the problems with the lack of identification is that it can potentially negate the safeguards torture victims have. While the detention rate of asylum seekers in Italy is generally low, there is no systematic way to identify torture victims in detention facilities, which means that it is possible for victims to be placed in detention. Once torture victims have filed their asylum claim and enter the asylum procedure, in the experience of CIR, they are not accorded adequate reception conditions. In the past, there used to be specialised centres for vulnerable groups but this is no longer the case. There are now two different types of reception facilities in the country: First reception centres and second reception centres. The first reception centres are large-scale facilities run by the government, whereas the second reception centres are much smaller in scale and run by local authorities who often delegate the actual implementation to NGOs. Asylum seekers housed in the large-scale facilities receive varying degrees of assistance, depending on where they are and who runs the facility. Coordination between service-providers is generally poor, meaning that vulnerable asylum seekers might not have their special reception needs catered for. The smaller reception facilities do provide psychosocial support, including counselling, to vulnerable asylum seekers.16 Access to healthcare is another challenge facing torture victims when they arrive in Italy. Asylum seekers arriving by sea automatically undergo a medical examination, typically carried out by Medecins Sans Frontier. This examination is for all asylum seekers, not just torture victims, and is limited to the identification of communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis. Some vulnerable groups, such as unaccompanied minors, are singled out in this examination but this does not include torture victims. application Italy, 2010 - 2015 Asylum applicationsAsylum in Italy, 2010 –in2015 90,000 83,245 80,000 70,000 64,625 60,000 50,000 40,335 40,000 30,000 26,620 20,000 10,000 17,350 10,005 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 page 30 2014 2015