Migrants' Narratives from the Libyan Hell: “Sold As Slaves, Beaten and Forced to Leave.”

Repubblica.it – Long months of violence, detained in a condition of slavery without any contact with international bodies, right up till the departure for Italian shores: this is the shared narrative of three Africans who arrived in Italy before the Summer. All three are now being supported by the OpenEurope project jointly run by Oxfam, Borderline Sicilia and the Waldesian Deaconry.

Young People, Little Protection: From Landing to Turning Eighteen. The Situation in Some Centres in Eastern Sicily

For a few months, the Hotspot at Pozzallo has included a container for “welcoming” children and families. A space is “dedicated” to those who are meant to only be passing through the Hotspot after the landing, but in reality they are frequently illegally and lengthily detained, a fact which has now become “normal and inevitable.” The situation is submissively accepted by some of the organisations that ought to be defending the rights of migrants but in fact continually fail to report violations of those rights, more concerned as they are to obtain a piece of the pie within the system than protect and safeguard the new arrivals.

“We Can't Stop”. The Signs Of The Borders Written On The Bodies Of Those Who Arrive

“It was a long journey, but I put some money aside from my 'pay' these last few months. And I had an accident too, when my finger was crushed. My friends took me to the hospital and they had to amputate it. I'm better now though, I'm in a reception centre, I can talk and be understood.” 'M' writes to us again after a month of silence, from his new hostel in Germany. In May he will turn 17, and in June it will have been a year since he landed at Pozzallo.

The Golfo Azzurro, from the NGO Proactiva, arriving at Catania

Unaccompanied Foreign Minors: An Open-Air Orphanage

From Repubblica.it

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, 25,846 minors arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean in 2016. Sicily is the region which hosts the highest proportion of them. As part of a project to monitor the new reception centres, the Guarantor for Childhood and Adolescence visited Catania and Noto. Oxfam and Borderline Sicilia, however, have provided damning reports.

Ph: Repubblica.it

The New Tent Structures At The Port of Palermo

Last Saturday, the Norwegian Frontex vessel Siem Pilot docked at Palermo, bringing with it a cargo of 1,000 migrants. We use this term because this is exactly how people are treated: like goods. Below we publish a letter sent to us by a volunteer who attended the port for the first time.

The Siem Pilot at the port of Palermo

Market Commodities: Unaccompanied Minors Fleeing Without Any Protection

“I got out of Italy. Now I'm in a safe country.” 'A's message arrives early in the morning, a young Eritrean man who we met at Pozzallo and then followed throughout his first month at a centre for minors in the province of Syracuse. From the moment he arrived, 'A' had continued to repeat the first sentence he heard in Italian: “You are in Italy, a safe country.”

Pala Nebiolo in Messina: Forceful Fingerprinting and Lying to Those in Need of Protection

At the end of the seminar “Sicily, crossroads of the Mediterranean: Between open war and (open) borders,” which we attended on January 30th, we went to the Palanebiolo* with representatives of Migralab to monitor the situation there throughout interviews with some of the inhabitants.

Stories of Migrants: From Lampedusa to travel documents

Meridionews.it – First, the long journey that starts at the Ivory Coast, in Guinea, and in Mali. Then, there are several weeks of staying in Libya and attempting to acquire enough money – approximately 450€ – for crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, there is the arrival in Lampedusa, which is at the same time the beginning of a new odyssey through Sicily. This is the story of four teenagers who arrived in Catania Wednesday morning. All used names are pseudonyms.

They met each other in an abandoned house outside of Tripoli. Migrants from various countries are placed there by human traffickers, where they are waiting until they can board a ship. Their stories are diverse yet have one thing in common: the necessity to leave their homes.