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

Campobello di Mazara: Precarious Agricultural Labour and Discrimination

Campobello di Mazara is one of the most important stops in the cycle of seasonal labour in Sicily. Between September and December each year around 1,300 farm workers come to the area in order to work in the olive harvest, the majority of them originally from Subsaharian Africa. The situation is complicated. Although workers have been camping out in one of the nearby fields – “Erbe Bianche”, ‘White Grass’ – for many years, since 2014 a further space has been added, surrounding the former olive processing plant, confiscated from the Mafia.

The camp at Erbe Blanche, Campobello di Mazara (Province of Trapani)

The Extraordinary Reception of Unaccompanied Minors: The Ragusa Prefecture Looks to Open New Centres

At the end of July, the Chamber of Deputies approved the legislation of a new decree related to urgent financial measures, proposing “extraordinary measures for the reception of unaccompanied foreign minors”. These emergency measures have a a decidedly unconstitutional aspect, as ASGI* has also observed in an open letter, and which practically gives a free reign for the creation of new Extraordinary Reception Centres (CAS*) for unaccompanied minors.