Mincemeat

I was sitting down with two workers from an Extraordinary Reception Centre* in the province of Trapani, to discuss some of the problems which noiselessly repeat themselves within the centres (and not only those in Trapani), looking for some possible practical solutions. In these situations, the analysis often ends up being expressed in all its rawness: “They're mincemeat. It doesn't matter if they're adults or children, men or women, most people don't give them any attention, starting with the institutions and ending with the stressed and confused workers. And in these moments of stress, the migrant always takes the blame, and pays for it. The workers are always more distant from the needs of those who are being welcomed, because they're not paid, and they're pressed from all sides by endless requests from the migrants, who end up having mincemeat made of them, without any possibility of getting out unharmed.”