After The Landing, Human Rights On Hold: The Case Of The Extraordinary Reception Centre at Rosolini

Mohamed and Ahmed (not their real names) arrived in Sicily on the first of July. The Swedish ship BKV 002 to which they were transferred while still at sea brought them into the port of Catania along with 650 other migrants and 9 bodies. “It was extraordinary to think that just one step more and we were in Europe” is the phrase they used on arrival. At least, it was in our first meeting.

Migrants at the port of Augusta (Province of Syracuse)

Landing at Messina on March 22, and the Amal Reception Centre for Minors (formerly the Liberty)

On March 22nd we assisted with a landing at Messina which brought the number of people to have arrived in the city since January up to 1,269. The landing, carried out by the Spanish ship Canarias (EUNAVFOR-MED), involved 636 people, including some women and children. The pre-identification operations and consequent transferrals from the port to the former barracks at Bisconte were interrupted by the police at around 6pm, leaving at least 200 people on board, who were forced to sleep in the open air on deck, with only thermal blankets for cover.

The Canarias in port at Messina

You Also Put Rubbish In Black Bags

On Friday 16th December we were at the port of Palermo to welcome the 388 migrants who have beaten death and arrived on board the Spanish military vessel Navarra. Along with those rescued, there was also one body. Up until the moment of arrival at Palermo, the staff at the port ready to assist in the landing operation had still not been notified of the corpse. It is entirely likely that this person – brought to dry land in a black bag, and welcomed with the blessing of the ever-present Comboni Lay Mission – died after being rescued at sea, on their way to Palermo. The person suffered diabetes and, after the psycho-physical stress and inhumane conditions, did not manage to win out against the odds, death instead winning once again, with the assistance of European policies.

Hard to Accommodate: Agrigento

Looking over the most recent data, it seems that the practice of handing out rejections is once again in fashion at the Sicilian police stations. Last week there were rejections of 26 Moroccans and 3 Algerians in Agrigento, having arrived at Porto Empedocle on the ferry from Lampedusa. Along with them there was a Tunisian who was arrested as a “suspected boat driver”. On the ship connecting the Pelagian islands and Sicily there were also around 20 foreign unaccompanied minors, who will have joined the veritable army of minors hosted by the vast numbers of housing communities in the Province of Agrigento, even claiming a record for the number of centres of 'first reception' for minors, opened as usual in a situation of emergency.

Hard to Accommodate: Palermo

In the past few days we have read about the announcementsby the mayor of Gorino and the protests held by its citizens, and many of us have condemned such acts. Without doubt, racism and ignorance have created some monsters for the front pages, but in the end it has been too easy to “pick off the easy targets”, and no one in the media has examined the errors committed by the Prefecture and other institutional agents, who were unaware of how to set up a reception project: there was no plan prepared for any interaction between the new arrivals and the indigenous community, but instead they were inserted into a situation of emergency, causing simply the latest social conflict which has served to demonstrate quite clearly the true face of migration policies and to continue to reap its harvest of victims.

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 Violence Reproduced by Emergency

Emergency considered as the only possible response. It is the institutional reaction at an international, national and local level faced with this continuing, terrifying massacre. It is a response that is being invoked with ever more force in the context of managing the phenomenon of migration in Sicily. If we recall that an emergency is “an improvised situation which has to be confronted immediately”, we can understand quite quickly how inappropriate a word it is to be used to describe the situation of the arrival, placement and “welcoming” of migrants. To make a system out of an emergency that lasts years, shows the clear will of the relevant political actors, and the absence of any institutional transparency in involving the citizenry in what is actually going on.

We Are Rebuilding the Emergency

Foto Alberto Biondo

The piercing cry of children, the black stare of a young man accused of smuggling, the fear of a woman who cannot withstand the umpteenth queue, the uncertain advance of the hundreds who descend the steps of the Dattilo awaiting the next interminable line into the unknown. We have assisted at this disembarking as at many others in Palermo in recent days, where 1,052 people were landed after having been saved in eight different Search And Rescue operations. 

A free choice which cannot be bordered

The European Commission has adopted the long awaited European Agenda on Migration these days. Major coverage and attention have been given to the strengthening of the mandate of FRONTEX and to the fight against human traffickers by making available new funding schemes and by planning joint maritime border control operations.

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.

They are being taken for a ride – Part 2

Today around 1,500 migrants landed again in Sicily, making a total of around 10,000 in the last days. It seems that, for the 400 who just arrived in Palermo, the wheels of fortune turned out well, as they will be transferred North, thereby running less risk of being intercepted by those who want to continue to profit from their voyage of hope.

Triton alone cannot afford to save lives

Redattore Sociale - "The prompt rescue of refugees at sea can be crucial for saving the lifes of many of them who opt for departure to Italy across the sea even in adverse sea conditions and in too cold temperatures”, says the activist of Borderline Sicilia Judith Gleitze emphatically who has always been committed to support the refugees who find a shelter in the Italian centres.

"The operation Triton (Frontex) cannot alone provide assistance for the refugees shipwrecked at sea”, she adds. "The ships of Triton, which must not move more than 30 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, leave the rescue mission to the few ships of the Italian Coast Guard. Unfortunately, what has been said from several parties about the operation has been proven true. In this way, we support the death of the refugees, "she adds. "It seems that the hands of the Italian Navy are tied and it is not possible to leave everything to the small vessels of the Coast Guard. They do what they can as soon as they have received the message. The whole system obviously must be scrutinised.“

One of the activists from the blog Sicilia Migranti who has always been devoted to constantly check the state of the extraordinary reception centres in Sicily together with his volunteers, criticises again the system of reception. "Even though it looks like a slowdown in arrivals of refugees on our shores, the recording system of CAS - extraordinary reception centres - remained the same with the same structural problems as always. It is difficult to draw a picture of all CAS’s on the island many of which are still filled with migrants." "The CAS, some larger, some smaller, must be managed according to the required standards," he emphasizes. "Unfortunately, we know that this is not so true for many of them because they are seen as sources of profit. They are far from the quality criteria which are provided by law such as the cultural mediation and legal assistance."

One only talks about the CAS when there are protests of migrants. After a recent protest in the centre Madonnina di Nicolosi in the province of Catania, 20 migrants have requested a transfer to a SPRAR*. The Vice-Prefect has personally bothered to check the conditions in the facility and then decided to move the group in the CARA* of Mineo.

No one speaks about the hidden and secluded "new" reception centre of Rosolini in the province of Syracuse where asylum seekers await to start with the procedure [of the asylum procedure, editor’s note] since August. "To reach the CAS of Rosolini is not easy," writes a staff member of Borderline Sicilia, "at least if one is not from the area.” Once, after having left the place behind and just before you go on the winding road that leads to the nearby caves, the only way to find the facility is to ask passers-by where the ex-Disco Picadilly is, which has recently become a shelter for migrants. An imposing building that was never completed and was formerly considered to be a disco and hall for receptions. It is located on a gravel road between the few buildings in front of the caves that exist around.

In Agrigento, the CAS Siciliana is also full while there are only 38 migrants left in the CAS of the centre of San Carlo and Santa Rosalia Caritas in Palermo; another 21 are in other strictly ecclesiastical reception centres.

We want to add a comment to the article that the rescue at sea is essential to save lives; but this is not enough. As long as the European policies and legislations on immigration and asylum are not radically changed, people will continue to die at sea and on other borders.

SPRAR: protection facilities for asylum seekers and refugees

CARA: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers

Translation: Aylin Satmaz

Hundreds of immigrants are continuing to arrive, with tales of the many who did not finish the journey.

How long will we carry on merely talking about emergency?
We have reached the end of November and in the last 5 days alone, around a thousand migrants have arrived on the coast of eastern Sicily, mainly to the landing ports of Augusta and Pozzallo. “I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t stay”, M tells me. We met in the refugee camp at the Augusta port, just after he disembarked with 318 others. “ I do consider myself a lucky man: only a few days ago I knew of a few refugees, just like myself, that disappeared into the water before the rescuers arrived”. This was the news given on Tuesday by 94 migrants that landed in Augusta on Sunday the 23rd. Ten people disappeared into the water in a vain attempt to reach the freighter that had come to rescue them. It is striking to see the composure with which M talks about the risks he ran, and it should destroy that wall of indifference that counts immigrants only as a number, taking into account these statistics that now reach into the hundreds.