The Parliamentary Commission Fails The Pozzallo Hotspot: New Minors Accepted Yesterday

On June 23^rd the parliamentary commission for the inquest into migrants visited the Hotspot of Pozzallo, in order to investigate the reception centre given over to official identification. The inspection revealed a critical and concerning situation within the centre: structural inadequacies, problems with the water supply, violations and privacy and prolonged detention of unaccompanied minors. Major “attention” is given over only to the identification procedures, perfectly in line with the logic of the Hotspot approach.

Pozzallo: the detention of minors in the Hotspot continues. A farcical release on the occasion of Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini's visit.

Yesterday evening Senator Manconi gained access to the Hotspot at Pozzallo, accompanied by representatives from Caritas and ARCI*, all of whom were present in the city due to the international festival Sabir. This came after months of countless journalists, both national and international, being refused from entering by the Ministry, who provided the excuse of organisation problems. This has been an extremely serious situation as it has not permitted observation and recognition of the serious violations perpetrated within the centre for months and years.

Visit to the former barracks of Gasparro in Bisconte, Messina

On the 7th of March we have entered the former barracks of Gasparro in Bisconte (or ‘ex-caserma’ in Italian) together with a couple of activists of Messina and with Francesco D’Uva, a congress man of the Movimento 5 Stelle. We arrived around 17.00 o’clock and found the door open, the entrance guarded by a surveillance officer. Before our visit we have collected general information from the supervisor of the managing authority, the ARCA association of Trapani, about the residents currently present in the facility. In total there are 198 men in the age between 18 and 25 year, who are mostly coming from Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.