Out of Initial Reception, Into Mineo: What Future Awaits 18 Year Olds?, 16th March 2017“Things are going better now, because they're going to transfer me soon.” 'A', originally from Ghana, turned 18 a few months ago. For the past year he has been living in one of the big centres of initial reception for unaccompanied foreign minors in the Province of Catania, though he asked us not to name it. We met each other here in June last year. He was very different from how he is now. It has been a year of pain, confusion, attempts at dialogue and small “victories”. One of these was signing up at school, something for which 'A' and a dozen other young men at the centre campaigned from the start. It was in fact at one of these 'protests' in the form of a letter sent to the centre's managers that we met him. Read more...
The CARA* at Mineo once again at the centre of investigations. And the numbers present continue to rise, 22nd June 2016
The investigations into the CARA* at Mineo, within the remit of “Mafia Capitale”, is producing new subpoenas for fraudulent misrepresentation and serious fraud, including the falsification of the number of migrants at the centre. The number has continued to rise in recent weeks, with new transfers following on from the disembarkings, not only at the ports of Catania and Augusta, but also Pozzallo, Trapani and Reggio Calabria. At the time of writing, the building houses around 3,500 people and explicitly carries out all the identification and selection procedures pertaining to the Hotspot approach, and seems also to be used as a Hub, given recent mass transferrals of Eritreans who have been agreed to relocation. It is thus simultaneous a location under investigation and also entrusted with a range of new functions, occurrences not only with no clear juridical regulation but, above all, even without pertaining to the duty of protecting migrants' rights. It is a ghetto in the middle of nowhere, outside of which, week after week, the army and police forces multiply. Read more...
L’Urlo – Another dead person at Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers). The dead person is an adolescent, who was found lying on the ground behind a building of the hosting center. This is also were the on-site inspection of the Caltagirone prosecution took place. The investigation does not exclude any possible scenario. read more...
Mineo: Dead after being discharged from hospital. The woman was pregnant, an inquiry has been opened, Tuesday 8th January 2013
Live Sicilia - The woman is Teksa Abraha, she was in her fourth month of pregnancy. Of Eritrean origin, she was staying with her husband in the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers). She fell ill two days ago. A 28 year old Eritrean, Teksa Abraha, who was four months' pregnant, died yesterday evening after being discharged from hospital in Catania. The women was a resident in the Mineo Cara, where she had been staying with her husband since August 2012. Francesco Paolo Giordano, the Public Prosecutor, has opened an inquiry into the affair although there are no main suspects and the autopsy is as yet unavailable.read more...
Asylum Seeker's latest protest momentarily suspended at the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), 20th December 2012
This morning's manifestation which saw several hundred asylum seekers take part, has recently drawn to a close. The action started when the asylum seekers, the majority of whom were fromEritrea Catania
An angry shout from the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers): "We want freedom, not the food and lodgings which are given to prisoners", 20th December 2012
The CARA* at Mineo once again at the centre of investigations. And the numbers present continue to rise, 22nd June 2016
The investigations into the CARA* at Mineo, within the remit of “Mafia Capitale”, is producing new subpoenas for fraudulent misrepresentation and serious fraud, including the falsification of the number of migrants at the centre. The number has continued to rise in recent weeks, with new transfers following on from the disembarkings, not only at the ports of Catania and Augusta, but also Pozzallo, Trapani and Reggio Calabria. At the time of writing, the building houses around 3,500 people and explicitly carries out all the identification and selection procedures pertaining to the Hotspot approach, and seems also to be used as a Hub, given recent mass transferrals of Eritreans who have been agreed to relocation. It is thus simultaneous a location under investigation and also entrusted with a range of new functions, occurrences not only with no clear juridical regulation but, above all, even without pertaining to the duty of protecting migrants' rights. It is a ghetto in the middle of nowhere, outside of which, week after week, the army and police forces multiply. Read more...
From Pozzallo to Mineo via Ventimiglia. Migrants detained, deported and isolated. 8th June 2016
The images which arrived from Ventimiglia and Genoa this week are images of a police state: beatings, evictions, raids, deportation flights and forced identifications imposed on around a hundred migrants, including pregnant women, children and vulnerable persons. Identifications, barracks detentions and deportation orders have also been distributed to a large number of activists and citizens deemed “guilty” of having given assistance, legal information and solidarity to the refugees camped along the beach at Ventimiglia. At the French border another dark chapter in Italian history is being written, precisely because, whether we want it to or not, the violation of rights, the repression and implementation of political liberticide affects all of us. read more...
Disappearing among the large numbers
They have reached the
port of Catania tonight, the survivors of the immense
tragedy of these days. 950 missing people to which are added new victims of the shipwreck
that happened in the Aegean Sea this night, and others scattered on the coasts of Libya. These
tragic numbers announced after the recent tragedies leave without words who for
months and years of talk and false promises has heard too many of them. But
it’s exactly this hypocrisy and opportunism of the official rhetoric that makes
it inevitable to give expression to testimonies of those who have a historical
depth in regard to the sensational news of the moment. read more...
Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers): One migrant found dead, Monday 2th march 2015
L’Urlo – Another dead person at Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers). The dead person is an adolescent, who was found lying on the ground behind a building of the hosting center. This is also were the on-site inspection of the Caltagirone prosecution took place. The investigation does not exclude any possible scenario. read more...From Pozzallo to Mineo via Ventimiglia. Migrants detained, deported and isolated. 8th June 2016
The images which arrived from Ventimiglia and Genoa this week are images of a police state: beatings, evictions, raids, deportation flights and forced identifications imposed on around a hundred migrants, including pregnant women, children and vulnerable persons. Identifications, barracks detentions and deportation orders have also been distributed to a large number of activists and citizens deemed “guilty” of having given assistance, legal information and solidarity to the refugees camped along the beach at Ventimiglia. At the French border another dark chapter in Italian history is being written, precisely because, whether we want it to or not, the violation of rights, the repression and implementation of political liberticide affects all of us. read more...
Disappearing among the large numbers
They have reached the
port of Catania tonight, the survivors of the immense
tragedy of these days. 950 missing people to which are added new victims of the shipwreck
that happened in the Aegean Sea this night, and others scattered on the coasts of Libya. These
tragic numbers announced after the recent tragedies leave without words who for
months and years of talk and false promises has heard too many of them. But
it’s exactly this hypocrisy and opportunism of the official rhetoric that makes
it inevitable to give expression to testimonies of those who have a historical
depth in regard to the sensational news of the moment. read more...
Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers): One migrant found dead, Monday 2th march 2015
Mineo: Dead after being discharged from hospital. The woman was pregnant, an inquiry has been opened, Tuesday 8th January 2013
Live Sicilia - The woman is Teksa Abraha, she was in her fourth month of pregnancy. Of Eritrean origin, she was staying with her husband in the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers). She fell ill two days ago. A 28 year old Eritrean, Teksa Abraha, who was four months' pregnant, died yesterday evening after being discharged from hospital in Catania. The women was a resident in the Mineo Cara, where she had been staying with her husband since August 2012. Francesco Paolo Giordano, the Public Prosecutor, has opened an inquiry into the affair although there are no main suspects and the autopsy is as yet unavailable.read more...
Asylum Seeker's latest protest momentarily suspended at the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), 20th December 2012
This morning's manifestation which saw several hundred asylum seekers take part, has recently drawn to a close. The action started when the asylum seekers, the majority of whom were from
An angry shout from the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers): "We want freedom, not the food and lodgings which are given to prisoners", 20th December 2012
by Leone Venticinque, for the Citizens' Committee of the Mineo, Caltagirone Support Group. And so this most recent manifestation which has been carried out since the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) became fully operative, brings the total number of protests to nine. Is it a lot or a few? What is certain is that the continuation of the root causes of what is leading to these protests has not been addressed by those who, as it would seem, have so many more important things to do than listen to the legitimate reasons for this disaster which has been created by those who are being paid to run the structure. Just to make it clear, here not only do we intend those running the centre but also those who are paid to prevent rather than comment on the problems when they become visible and can no longer be hidden. read more...Management of the Mineo CARA (hosting centre for asylum seekers) Mayor Marletta's proposal, 20th December 2012
While some mayors in the Caltagirone area are holding meetings ever higher up the political ranks in order to run the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) independently, the mayor of Palagonia, Valerio Marletta strongly reiterates that he wishes to take a stand against this politics which deviates huge sums of public money into a structure that after the departure of the Americans would never have been able to find a better way to make money. read more...
Report from the Mineo Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), 18th December 2012
The interethnic meeting in front of the Mineo megaCara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) finished a short time ago. The event did not get off to a good start due to the excessive military presence at the entrance (some groups of Police and Carabinieri, several vehicles and a significant army presence). They were there as the result of yet another protest within the Centre which took place yesterday morning involving dozens of Ethiopian asylum seekers who were complaining about the length of time their applications were taking. read more...
Mineo- revolts against slow bureaucracy, 17th December 2012
ctzen - Di Desirée Miranda. Riots have broken out between the Finance Police and immigrants at the Mineo Centre for Asylum Seekers in the Province of Catania. The problems started due to the failure of the Commission, which issues foreigners with documents, to show up and resulted in the throwing of stones, fences and, amongst other objects, manhole covers. Red tape, nonetheless, remains a big problem. "I have been here for a year and ten months and still have to wait," one of the residents of the Centre, which as a result of the recent arrivals on Lampedusa is becoming ever more crowded, told us. read more...
MIGRATION EQUALS LIFE! STOP THE TRAGEDIES NOW! 17th December 2012
Migration is a choice that will affect the rest of your life. It is made in order to escape misery or war, or to build a future for yourself or your family. Unfortunately nonetheless, crossing borders- be it land or sea, often entails putting your life in dangerous or risky situations. The world's main migratory routes are lined with trenches and tombs. They are also places where thousands of people disappear each year without a trace, leaving behind families who must deal with the anxiety of never being able to find out what happened. It happens on the border between Mexico and the United States, along the stretches of the Sahara at Ceuta and Melilla, in and out of, as well as within, China and in the Mediterranean Sea. Not forgetting, of course, the borders that still separate eastern and western Europe and those which divide the United States from the countries of the South American continent. read more...
Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) Mineo: what is the future of the asylum seekers and their right to asylum? 27th November 2012
Since the "Solidarity" village first
opened, we have been speaking out against the squalid operations of the ex-
Minister Maroni who actually experimented his new segregationalist politics on
asylum seekers by placing them in a village more than 10 km from the nearest
inhabited centre. Furthermore, under the guise of the North African Emergency, tens
of millions of euro were squandered on rent (€6million per year for Pizzarotti
di Parma) and made accessible to the usual local clientele, all to create
business at the expense of the migrants. read more...
Mineo
Cara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers): a meeting place for different
populations or the denial of their rights?17th July 2012
The two day "Carafest 2012" finished yesterday at Mineo: there were information stands, performances, theatre, food tasting, fashion shows, concerts and debates.
The two day "Carafest 2012" finished yesterday at Mineo: there were information stands, performances, theatre, food tasting, fashion shows, concerts and debates.
It's
necessary to ask the governor, the Honourable Castiglione, what there is to
celebrate in a place like the largest Cara in Europe; what can possibly
interest the asylum seekers and the Mineo citizens about
inter-religious debates and speeches on Judaism or seminars on political
integration and the process of reception when the situation in the megaCara is
becoming ever more unsustainable, is a mystery that can only be justified by the
hypocrisy of show and performance. Yet it cannot hide the bitter reality.
read more..World Refugee day in MINEO, 21th June 2012
On the occasion of World Refugee Day on June 20, the Antiracist Network Catania organised a press conference on June 21 at the CARA of Mineo. After many protests last year regarding the living conditions for the almost 1900 asylum seekers at the CARA, this year has been much quieter in terms of political mobilisation. To draw renewed attention to the persisting problems, the Antiracist Network organised a press conference which was attended by RAI3, Telecolor, and three local TV stations. read more...
Mineo: the authorities on parade at the CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), yet marginalisation remains, Thursday 21st June 2012
by argocatania
A big day of celebrations is underway today at the Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) to mark World Refugee Day. Illustrious and refined guests have been invited for an event entitled, "From emergency to integration". Those present will include the highest authorities of the State: from the Prefecture to the Police Headquarters; the Bishop of Caltagirone; the Head of the Civil Protection, in addition to representatives from the University, the judiciary and the various organisations that work with the migrants.
The "man in charge", Giuseppe Castiglione, will lead the morning discussion, which will then be followed by the showing of the film Mare Nostro, with performances and music continuing into the evening. Each "partner" will be able to "invite 5 guests of his/her choice to the evening event". They must, however, be named in advance in order to prepare access passes. read more...
The mayor Marletto: we will close the Mineo "ghetto", Wednesday 20th June 2012
From the website: comune di Palagonia
Every year across the globe, "World Refugee Day" is celebrated on the 20th June. It began 20 years ago as part of a UNHCR initiative to create a moment to reflect upon the difficult choices that refugees are often forced to make over the course of their lives spent looking for protection. For this reason: "The Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers in Mineo will be closed as soon as possible because it has proven to be the biggest rip off that perpetrates damage to asylum seekers as well as the local community." The mayor of Palagonia, Valerio Marletta, is in no doubt and his comments do not rest at that.
read more...
Mineo: Prostitution, abuse, violence and now also abortions, Friday 20th April 2012
From argocatania
Life within the 400 small villas once inhabited by the marines from the US base, Sigonella consists not only of isolation, never-ending waits for hearings with the Commission for asylum requests or for help with appeals against rejections, imposed idleness, the absence of external structures and infrastructures and all that we have come to associate with life inside the Mineo, CARA; it is also prostitution, abuse and now also abortions. read more...
Solidarity for the migrants fighting for asylum rights at Mineo, Friday 23rd March 2012
The Catania Anti-Racist Network has recently launched a national campaign calling for the closure of the Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers). Our appeal follows a year of monitoring and denouncing the living conditions of the asylum seekers within the "village of solidarity". Yesterday's protest, which saw the inter-state Catania-Gela road blocked from the morning to the evening, expressed the anger of almost all of the different communities as a result of the high number of requests for asylum that are being rejected.
read more...
What conditions are the asylum seekers actually living in at the Mineo megaCARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers)? Thursday 22nd March 2012
After months of complete indifference, in the last few weeks the media have started to acknowledge the Mineo CARA and articles are being published which speak apologetically about the structure of "excellence at a European level." Between the 10th May and the 27th July last year a succession of 4 riots took place in an attempt to speed up the process of requests for asylum (the first hearing took place more than 2 months after the arrival of the 1,600 asylum seekers and straight after the first riot). There have been no substantial changes in the situation since last year.
read more...
The Eternal, Motionless Limbo of the Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), Thursday 1st March 2012, by Antonio Mazzeo
A year has already passed and emergency has been absorbed into daily life. It is a hotel- prison which has been transformed into a precarious trap; a space where everything is slow; an eternal non- place. Yesterday is today; today- tomorrow. The Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers in Mineo is still there, on the plain of Catania, a whitened Etna in the distance, surrounded by a desert of oranges and isolation. Five thousand people, five thousand lives, five thousand stories of pain, doubt and hope have spent endless months there waiting for the inscrutable divine justice: "Stay!" "Go away!" "Inside!" "Outside!" One thousand six hundred are still there, many of whom will stay at least until the end of the year. Yes, because, as there is no on-going debate on the rights and reception of asylum seekers, their emergency status has been extended to the 31st December 2012.
read more...
9 hectares, 404 detached houses, the 'Villaggio degli Aranci' ('The Village of Oranges') is lost in the countryside around Mineo. It was built by Pizzarotti spa and rented out to the Americans, but they left over a year ago. The ex-Minister Maroni did well to come up with idea to turn it into a C.A.R.A. (Government Shelter for Asylum Seekers), which currently holds "only" 1,400 people waiting for their permit of stay. The barbed wire surrounding the centre once served as a protective measure for the Americans. Now, however, it performs the opposite role, protecting those outside from the danger which these foreigners represent. They have already been described in some "racist" publications as potential criminals who should be "separated" and watched over. It is actually impossible to enter the 'Villaggio degli Aranci' which is under police guard, without a special pass. What conditions are the asylum seekers actually living in at the Mineo megaCARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers)? Thursday 22nd March 2012
After months of complete indifference, in the last few weeks the media have started to acknowledge the Mineo CARA and articles are being published which speak apologetically about the structure of "excellence at a European level." Between the 10th May and the 27th July last year a succession of 4 riots took place in an attempt to speed up the process of requests for asylum (the first hearing took place more than 2 months after the arrival of the 1,600 asylum seekers and straight after the first riot). There have been no substantial changes in the situation since last year.
read more...
The Eternal, Motionless Limbo of the Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), Thursday 1st March 2012, by Antonio Mazzeo
A year has already passed and emergency has been absorbed into daily life. It is a hotel- prison which has been transformed into a precarious trap; a space where everything is slow; an eternal non- place. Yesterday is today; today- tomorrow. The Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers in Mineo is still there, on the plain of Catania, a whitened Etna in the distance, surrounded by a desert of oranges and isolation. Five thousand people, five thousand lives, five thousand stories of pain, doubt and hope have spent endless months there waiting for the inscrutable divine justice: "Stay!" "Go away!" "Inside!" "Outside!" One thousand six hundred are still there, many of whom will stay at least until the end of the year. Yes, because, as there is no on-going debate on the rights and reception of asylum seekers, their emergency status has been extended to the 31st December 2012.
read more...
Is everything ok at the 'Villaggio degli Aranci' or not? 26 february 2012
read more...
Mineo. A Bengali immigrant reports corruption within the CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) to the police, Saturday 28th January 2012
In December a Bengali interpreter asked a fellow Bengali €440 to ensure his status as a political refugee. He was to be 'signalled out' by a policeman. Today, however, the victim has had his claim for refugee status refused, even though he bravely reported the situation to the police. "Now our lives are in danger," he says, "This is just like the mafia."
Video by Enrico Montalbano and Laura Verduci on terrelibere.org
The suspension of existence at the Mineo 'Camp', 20th January 2010 by Antonio Mazzeo
'5-star hell; the golden prison; a luxury concentration camp; a non-place where identities are wiped out, hope obliterated and where dependence and suffering perpetuate', this is how human rights activists and journalists have described the centre at Mineo. This March, the centre for those seeking asylum, a neo-racist and segregationist product of the Berlusconi- Maroni government, will have been open for over a year. More than five thousand people, five thousand faces, five thousand bodies, five thousand lives of women, men, girls and boys have entered its gates. Their rights have been denied. Their rights have been violated. For them, the CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) is a camp; a breeding ground for instability and the suspension of their existence. The worst example of a refugee centre in all Italian history.
read more...
Suspended Existence and Resistance at the CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) of Mineo (Italy,19th January 2012, by Glenda Garelli and Martina Tazzioli for storiemigranti)
The CARA (Centro di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers) opened in Mineo, Catania on the 18th March 2011. It was opened in response to the "the nation's state of emergency," declared by the then Berlusconi government in response to the migration towards mainland Europe from the revolutions underway in North African countries and the war in Lybia. According to government designs the "Villaggio della Solidarieta" in Mineo would provide an Italian model of a European refugee centre. It recycled a gated community modelled on the layout of an American town, which had been purpose built for the American military, who were due to leave in 2011 on the expiry of their contract.
read more...
Pd praise concentration camp model in Lampedusa, Wednesday 11th January 2012, by Antonio Mazzeo
In Lampedusa, the rundown "emergency and assistance" centre for migrants has been empty since 28th September 2011, when the remaining detainees were deported back to Tunisia or moved on to larger CIE (Centro di identificazione ed espulsione: Immigration Detention Centre(s)) in Italy by military force. It is a shameful model of reception, consisting of the daily deprivation of identity and subjectivity on an overwhelming and scientific scale. Yet now the PD (Democratic Party) want to relaunch the Centre, reopening the ghetto- like structure under the same management team as before, and so it will remain the pride and joy of the Lega Coop Sicilia.
read more...
CARA Mineo. Video by Enrico Montalbano and Laura Verduci,Sunday 8th January 2012
"18th December last year, during an anti-racist rally, we gained access to the Hosting Centre in Mineo. Europe 's largest, it attracts strong economic and political interests in and around Caltagirone, but also from further afield. In the video, there are interviews with Ianno Maccarrone- president of the CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), Antonio Mazzeo, Alfonso Di Stefano and the opinion of some of the migrants."
18th December 2011: Regional
Demonstration outside the Mineo CARA (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers),23rd December 2011
Several
Sicilian associations participated in the demonstration organised by the
Catania Anti-Racist Network, including: Officina rebelde, Cobas, qui mineo,
Centro Astalli Catania, Palermo Anti-Racist Forum, NO MOUS movement, Storie
Migranti. The demonstration, which was carried out with the migrants
themselves, was a mixture of both moments of conviviality and music, and also of
confrontation whilst speaking out against the living conditions and treatment
of those within the Centre.read more...
Video:
Video:
Interview with Antonio Mazzeo:
The Mineo Business. The
affairs of the concentration camp, 12th December 2011
Closed,
isolated and enormous: this is the first impression that the Mineo
Concentration Camp, the Centre which Berlusconi and Maroni
have been so proud of, creates. Yet it is also big business: cooperatives and
consortiums who are playing for millions and millions of euro and thousands and
thousands of votes.....
"The
Mineo Centre in the Province
of Catania is set up as a
sort of non-place where people carry out their daily lives in conditions of
apathy and resignation. The very idea of being able to manage a macro-
structure where thousands of people are segregated is an irrational project
that can only lead to social distress."
read more...
Mineo: dialogue between agriculturers and residents at the "Village of Solidarity" gets underway, 23rd October 2011
On Saturday 22 October, the Catania AntiRacist Network once again
demonstrated the longsightedness of their constant and unyielding work: over
the course of several months, the interethnic meetings which the Catania
AntiRacist Network periodically organise have remained the only appointment to
survive the fleeting media orgies and have built an irreplaceable platform from
which to initiate constructive dialogue. read more...
Mobilisation for the rights of the migrants within the Mineo megaCara (Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers), 20th October 2011
For more than a month, we have all been awaiting the change of management at the Centre. September 1 should have seen the management pass over to the consortium of social cooperatives, Sisifo (supporters of the Lega Coop) who were awarded the public contract in August. Nonetheless, the hand over has only begun to get underway in the last couple of days (up until now the daily food costs- for food of extremely poor quality- has created a budget of €17,000, approximately €10 per migrant). read more...
