The Reception System in Agrigento, Trapani and Palermo: Between Disorganisation, Chaos and Abandonment

The deadly game does not stop. Europe has found a way out, and the only consequence will be the death of an entire society. The refrain we hear everyday is of an “invasion” and “help them in their own countries”. These phrases have contributed to the return of a regurgitated racism, spreading out across our cities in a series of episodes, from Aosta to Palermo, as seen by the latest protests in Castell'Umberto and Porto Empedocle.

Protest by shopkeepers in Porto Empedocle (Provincia of Agrigento) against the opening of a centre for minors

Young Migrants Abused: “He Can Spit Blood For All I Care”

LiveSiciliaCatania – MASCALI. Big business in the migrant reception sector – particularly of unaccompanied foreign minors – is at the centre of an inquiry opened this morning by Operation Camaleonte. On request of the public prosecutor in Catania, an order for cautionary imprisonment has been made for Giovanni Pellizzeri – 56, employee of the provincial health service, former mayoral candidate in the last elections in Mascali – as well as his son, Mario Pellizzeri, 29, and Isabella Vitale, 48, the businessman's right arm. They are accused of the crimes of corruption, abuse of minors and forgery.

Giovanni and Mario Pellizzeri

The Vos Prudence Lands at Catania

Yesterday morning, Médecins Sans Frontières' vessel, the Vos Prudence, landed the bodies of another six people who died at the border. Five of them are young women, whose bodies seemed to have remained at sea for around a week before being recovered from international waters, respectively 42 and 20 nautical miles from the Libyan coast. The sixth body belongs to a man, and was transferred by Save the Children's vessel, the Vos Hestia. 

The Vos Prudence in port at Catania

The Initial Reception Centre for Minors in Giarre: The Residents Speak Out

Giarre, a small town of around 27,000 people in the foothills of Etna, has been host to a range of centres for unaccompanied minors. We have previously reported and officially complained about the serious issues at these projects, which were consequentially closed by Social Services, only to be reopened by the same managing bodies elsewhere, in accordance with a logic of business and power which remains extremely difficult to extinguish. 

The initial reception centre for unaccompanied minors in Giarre, Province of Catania

Deaths, Rejections and Vulnerable Detentions in the Pozzallo Hotspot: The Daily Tragedy of Those Fleeing to Europe

On average there are four landings every week at Sicilian ports alone, along with dozens of deaths and an imprecise number of people missing at sea. We're at the beginning of December, but the departures from Libya continue, with ever less certainty of arriving in Europe. The first round of shared training between the Libyan Coast Guard and the Italian Navy has just come to a conclusion on board the navy vessel San Giorgio, carried out by the European Union Naval Force, within the remit of the EUNAVFORMED operation Sophia. At the same time, the various humanitarian maritime missions, including the Bourbon Argos and the Dignity of Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children's Vos Hestia and MOAS*'s Phoenix will soon be concluding their own rescue operations for several months.

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.

Western Sicily: The Failure Paid For By Those In Search of Hope

The high number (over 40) of housing communities for minors in the Province of Agrigento makes monitoring them difficult. Many of the centres of very first reception for minors, called “highly specialised” centres, are specialised in nothing other than malfunctioning. The most serious situations are to be found in Licata, Palma di Montechiaro and Porto Empedocle, but the reports we are receiving are wide ranging.

Those Who Die, Those Who Arrive and Those Who Remain: The Overcrowded Hotspots at Pozzallo

“What Europe just doesn't understand is that for migrants arriving in Libya it's less risky to try and escape across the sea that to try and go back to their home countries”, says A., a young Senegalese man who arrived in Italy two years ago. Like many of his countrymen, he's following the rescue operations on the TV, shot through with a sense of momentary relief between the powerlessness and rage. “Anyone who hasn't been in Libya cannot imagine what it means to live there. Every European has a mobile, in the same way every Libyan, however old, walks around with a gun in his hand. But no one in Italy wants to hear about this.”

San Michele di Ganzaria: The Story of a Daily Violence

“The situation here in San Michele is simply unsustainable, you have to help us do something.” It's the middle of July, and a city councillor in the small town of San Michele di Ganzaria, a few kilometres from Caltagirone, has contacted us in order to explain the conditions faced by a dozen minors who have recently been housed in a structure managed by the 'San Francesco' cooperative.

So Many Arrivals, So Little Protection. Migrants In Ever Worse Conditions And Abandoned To Themselves.

In only a few days 4,500 people have been rescued and brought to the main Sicilian ports: Pozzallo, Augusta, Catania, Messina, Porto Empedocle and Palermo. The arrival of such a high number of migrants paradoxically corresponds to refugees' extraordinary invisibility and the lack of protection for them. As always happens when there are various landings on the same day, NGO workers are forced to divide themselves among the different ports, leaving somewhere uncovered.

Foto Lucia Borghi

Palermo, Playing with the Futures of Unaccompanied Minors

Yet another missed call, and again it is from Ben [NB: all names have been changed], a 16 year old who insists that he has to talk to me as soon as possible. I decide to meet up with him, even if I won't have any way as well of listening to the managing body of the centre in which he is housed, given that in many of the various kinds of centres for minors it is complicated enough to set up a meeting.