The Camp At Pian Del Lago, Caltanissetta: A Non-Place Of Desperation

Living conditions are increasingly worse for the migrants living at the informal camp at Pian del Lago. After the last police eviction (26 May 2017) they have been forced to set up their tents in the remaining spaces between the big holes in the earth left by the diggers from Caltambiente. The attempt is of course the continual reconstruction of the tent city, only in a still more difficult situation, one which was already tragic.

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.

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

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.

Lampedusa: The transfers and deportations resume, and the protests continue

In recent days we have been present at the start of a series of protests in cities across Sicily which have spread throughout Italy, which show that this system is broken, even if our politicians pretend neither to see it nor find solutions.

Caltanissetta: a visit in the refugee camp

It is the third winter in a row in which we are monitoring the refugees encamped around the governmental centre of Pian del Lago in Caltanissetta. Our last visit here dates back to October. The living conditions become harder during winter season for those who have to live in the streets for several weeks, before being granted access to the procedures of obtaining international protection.

Contrada Pian del Lago in Caltanissetta: camps in 2015

Measurements of eviction and fences are not enough to solve the problem of hundreds of asylum seekers forced to wait up to four weeks before they can apply for international protection. After the removal of spontaneously made up camps last year, hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived in the city have for months stayed in houses provided by speculators, paying up to 100 euro just for a mattress on the floor. These alternative accommodations to the camps have given less visibility to this phenomena but the problem of asylum seekers, being forced to wait to be identified in order to receive accommodation has never been solved.