The Former 'Gasparro' Barracks and the Bisconte Neighbourhood: In The Pits of Abandonment

The situation at the former 'Gasparro' barracks in the Bisconte neighbourhood in Messina is only getting worse – especially now that, since the end of September, the extant Extraordinary Reception Centre (CAS)* has been joined by a complex of prefab containers, officially functioning according to the Hotspot approach.

Messina: the complex at the former barracks in Bisconte

Reception system, the new CAS* scattered between hills and mountains of the province. “Migrants increasingly lonely and isolated: this way they can be blackmailed”

MeridioNews.it - After the public call by the prefecture for the entrustment of foreign citizens asking for international protection, centres have opened far away from the cities. “They answer to the logic of hiding people”, Alberto Biondo, representative of Borderline Sicily, denounces: “It is an immigration factory which creates invisible people”.

Photo: Cooperative "Lavoro e non solo"

The Migrant Business: More Than €143,000 Per Day, Managed By An Archipelago Of Cooperatives

Palermo.repubblica.it – The former Regional Aide for Families, managed of the Ippocrate in Enna: “We're only left with €3 per resident.”

In front of the gates to the former hotel 'Canguro', the locals of Castell'Umberto point their fingers above all at them: the cooperatives. “They make money and we take the migrants” is the phrase passing through the crowd.

Migrants hosted at the hotel 'Sinatra' (Lapresse)

After the Latest Eviction: An Update on the Camp at Pian del Lago

In mid-March the police yet again evicted the camp at Pian del Lago (Caltanissetta). All this achieved was the temporary removal of some of those who had found a precarious sanctuary under the motorway overpass. After the police operation had been carried out at dawn, some of the migrants were taken in by the reception centre at Caltanissetta, while many others – not having anywhere else to go – had no option but to reconstruct the camp-site the very same night.

Migrants. A Clear Way Ahead For The Minniti-Orlando Decree: The Central Points

From Redattoresociale.it

The government has put its faith in the Senate. The Ministry of the Interior's end goal is to speed up the whole process and to ensure the regulation of the migrant reception system. But the polemics have already begun: from the Community of Sant'Egidio all the way to ARCI, everyone opposes the decree. Gianfranco Schiavone (ASGI): “A manifesto made up of laws, without reasons for their necessity or urgency.”

Caltanissetta. After the Eviction, the Shanty Town Returns. Shacks Without Water: The Asylum Seekers Speak Out

From MeridioNews.it

Six days ago the police guaranteed a relocation process, one which nonetheless only took place for some. The others came back to live under the bridge, near to the migrant reception centre at Pian del Lago. They brought water bottles in shopping trolleys from a supermarket, and looked for wood to burn to warm themselves up.

Ph. MeridioNews.it

Messina: The Tent-City at PalaNebiolo Finally Taken Down. For Three And A Half Years It Housed Asylum Seekers In Shameful Conditions

From Stampalibera.it

Three and a half years since its transformation into a centre of bad reception for asylum seekers fleeing from war, famine and ecological crimes, the PalaNebiolo stadium at Conca d'Oro dell'Annunziata, property of the University of Messina, will perhaps finally return to being a baseball pitch for training the local teams.

The Deal with Libya and Migrant Raids: Italy and the EU's Approach to Immigration Is Increasingly Disturbing

Press release.

Borderline Sicilia is deeply concerned about the agreement signed in Malta today between Italy and Libya, as well as about the telegram sent by Giovanni Pinto (Chief of Border Police) to Italian police stations on January 26^th, which ordered the tracking down of undocumented Nigerian citizens in order to place them in detention centres and deport them. This meant that it is not only their lack of papers which has been given as a criteria for the operation, but also connection with a specific nationality.

Visit to the Camp at Pian del Lago

In January we visited the camp at Pian del Lago, in Caltanissetta, twice, along with staff from Oxfam as part of the OpenEurope project. The eviction of the encampment a few days before Christmas filled the pages of the daily newspapers, but had no effect at all on the migrants' lives: they were living on the street before, and they lived on the street immediately afterwards. As soon as the police had left the sit, in fact, a dozen people moved in under the motorway columns, rebuilding their makeshift homes our of beat up tents and plastic boxes and sheets, the only means they have to deal with one of the coldest winters in years.

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]

EU Re-Assesses Italy's Activity in the Hotspots. Activists: “Fingerprinting? A Widespread Failure”.

Source: Meridionews.it

The European Commission has closed the infringement case against Italy and Greece relating to accusations of deficiencies in migrant identification centres. At the same time, associations have noted the limited results of the relocation program. “The norm at the moment is to imprison asylum seekers”, says Paola Ottaviano from Borderline Sicilia.

Ph: Meridionews.it

Forced Stopover: The Time That Doesn't Pass in Agrigento

We spent a day with the migrants in the Villaggio Mosè in Agrigento, meeting both the managers and residents. The dynamics and practices will be familiar given that the system has generalised them, and in many cases creates conditions which are not suitable for living a dignified life. Our visit began with the “La mano di Francesco” Extraordinary Reception Centre (CAS*) on Viale Cannatello, the road which leads from Villaggio Mosè down to the beach. Thus, aside from a few shops and a supermarket, there is nothing in the area.

Remembrance by the Few, Silence of the Many. Three Landings and 29 Bodies at Pozzallo.

"I left after having spent 40 days in a bunker in Libya. I was threatened with death, robbed of my documents, tied up and beaten. I lost all sense of time, I couldn't tell when it was night or day. It was only on arrival in Italy that I properly understood how much time had passed. Looking at myself, I hardly recognise who I am anymore.”

Photo: the MOAS Topaz Responder, at Pozzallo.

“Don't Call Them Economic Migrants”. MEDU Explains the Exodus to Europe

From Redattoresociale.it

An interactive map shows refugees' voyages, from desert to boat. Ninety per cert of them are victims of violence, abuse and psychological trauma. “The dichotomy of economic migrant and refugee isn't up to explaining a complex reality like this.”

That Old Hotel at Geraci Siculo

Geraci, famous for the clean waters which flow from the nearby springs, has been host to an Emergency Reception Centre (CAS*) since 2011. During the North African emergency, the owners of the old Ventimiglia hotel decided to change profession and the hoteliers/restaurant owners became instead a coop which – first under state protection, and then with the Prefecture – manages an Emergency Reception Centre. And despite the fact that since 2011 the situation has remained unchanged both in terms of numbers and dynamics, in Geraci Siculo there is still an overwhelming climate of 'emergency', thanks to a state which looks the other way and abandons those have decided to live within the reception system.

The SPRAR (protection facilities for asylum seekers and refugees) of Aidone’s municipality

We get to know the SPRAR of Aidone’s municipality through an unpredictable meeting with some beneficiaries in a street of the small town centre.
They tell us that their biggest problem is the denial of the application for international protection: they have arrived in Italy in June 2014, had the personal hearing with the competent Territorial Commission in September 2015 and received the decision last December. Therefore, after 18-19 months waiting, they are again at the beginning. In view of the audition with the Territorial Commission for the asylum application, they have been assisted by the legal consulent who collaborates with the project and gave them information at their arrival.

Visit of the centre for extraordinary reception "Hotel Morgantina" of Aidone

“A word for summarizing the situation here is Zero". This is the phrase with which we conclude the meeting with the residents of Aidone’s centre of extraordinary reception we visited last month.

Second edition of “Arte Migrante” in Modica

“Already after the first edition this summer I couldn’t wait for the next to come!” This is how M., a young asylum seeker, comments the preparations for the second edition of “Arte Migrante” that was held on the first Sunday of January in Modica. Already in August the event had delighted the migrants living in the shelter of the territory so they wouldn’t want to miss it this time, infecting with their enthusiasm also their companions.
The evenings are organized by a constantly increasing group of artists, citizens and students of Modica, bringing a project to life in Sicily that started in Emilia Romagna.

The Right of Asylum becomes a Utopia

In the last few weeks, while the news in the newspapers has focussed on other events, Italy has continued to deny young migrants a future and a hope: those running from the hands of terrorists, from “democratic” bombs, from multinationals, from slavery, from the desert and the sea, are ending up under a bridge or in a doorway.

The hope of which we speak is called international protection, which today seems little more than a utopia – both for those who have been in Italy for some time, and those who have arrived in recent days. In the midst of almost total silence, the Italian government has signed or revived agreements with various African nations (Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Gambia), covered by large sums of money, both to impede departures headed for Europe and to promptly repatriate those who are not stopped by the desert, the traffickers or the sea.

A young asylum seeker dies after being run over on the highway of Pian del Lago

The young men run over on the highway of the hamlet Pian del Lago last April 10 (Il Fatto Nisseno), did not survive. He died last April 20, on the intensive care unit at the hospital of Saint Elia of Caltanissetta. We were able to obtain this news through informal channels only 10 days later. No official institution spread the news. Neither the police department nor the prefecture communicated the death of an asylum seeker who died because of a run over on the highway that connects the government reception centre and the immigration office of the police department with the urban centre of Caltanissetta.