Messina: A Mega Tent-City for Migrants in the Old 'Gasparro' Barracks. The €1,932,000 Contract Already Announced in the Official Gazette. And that's not all...

By Stampalibera.it

In a few months' time the former barracks of 'Gasparro' in Messina (in the urban area of Bisconte) will be transformed into one of the largest centres in Italy for the forced “welcoming” of those migrants awaiting the authorities' decision on whether they will be eventually relocated to other structures for asylum seekers in Europe or – as will be the case for the vast majority of them – to be deported by military force to their countries of origin. Dozens of tents and containers will be installed next to the buildings of the 'Gasparro' (where around 200 young migrants have already been stuck for three years) allowing for the tripling or even quadrupling of the number of residents, and – just a short walk from the town centre – replicating the infamous failure of the “Mineo” model of reception.

[photo: Enrico di Giacomo]

Visit to the former barracks of Gasparro in Bisconte, Messina

On the 7th of March we have entered the former barracks of Gasparro in Bisconte (or ‘ex-caserma’ in Italian) together with a couple of activists of Messina and with Francesco D’Uva, a congress man of the Movimento 5 Stelle. We arrived around 17.00 o’clock and found the door open, the entrance guarded by a surveillance officer. Before our visit we have collected general information from the supervisor of the managing authority, the ARCA association of Trapani, about the residents currently present in the facility. In total there are 198 men in the age between 18 and 25 year, who are mostly coming from Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.