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

Humanity Drowns On Lampedusa

The Italian government has always used the most beautiful island in the Mediterranean as a place to experiment with immigration policies. And the Lampedusans have always been treated as guinea pigs by different governments over the years in order to see how much can be tolerated.

The Difficulties of the Reception System in Trapani

Requests for help have been coming in from people hosted in reception centres across Sicily, but over the past month such messages have been particularly concentrated in the province of Trapani. We understand this to be due to a number of factors, first and foremost the new contracts which have recently become active, and which have been awarded to entities with little experience in the reception business and cooperatives which have attempted to expand their activities by taking on several structures simultaneously (Extraordinary Reception Centres* as well as centres for minors and ones run by the central service in Rome*).

Young migrants in the Extraordinary Reception Centre 'Essarasya', San Miceli (Province of Trapani)

A Reception System Which Only Benefits the Few: A Visit to the Centre of First Reception for Minors at Castiglione di Sicilia

“State of emergency”, “exceptional” and “extraordinary” measures: those words so frequently associated with illegal practices carried out without any check and controls, but which seem to be the only method used for years to run the so-called “welcoming” system in Italy. The Extraordinary Reception Centres (CAS*) are but one example of this, another being the First Reception Centres (CPA*) which for years now have become part of the “ordinary” character of the migrant reception system. For ever more people, the possibility of having professional figures throughout the procedure for getting documents, and during insertion into a host community, has simply disappeared.

The Extraordinary Reception Centre for Women in Poggioreale: Vulnerabilities Left Unprotected

13 women, one with a 1-year-old child.

13 women, about whom no one speaks.

13 women, of whom 3 are pregnant.

13 adult women along with 3 young girls.

We are talking about the women housed in the only Extraordinary Reception Centre (CAS*) for women in the Province of Trapani, situated in Poggioreale and managed in fits and start by the “New Horizons” (Nuovi Orizzonti) cooperative since July 2014.

Unaccompanied Minors: When Reception Is Seen Only As a Challenge

“New guys arrive, but their problems aren't over”, commented some migrants outside the Hotspot at Pozzallo. Yesterday 286 migrants arrived at the Ragusan port, including around 20 unaccompanied minors. Young people of 15, 16, 17 – but also 13 and younger, such as those to whom we had already introduced ourselves. Last Thursday a delegation from the OSCE (Organisation Security and Co-operation in Europe) visited the Pozzallo Hotspot, having already stopped at the CARA* at Mineo. In the hours immediately prior to the visit, we assisted in a large number of transfers from the Hotspot to centres nearby. Among the migrants leaving there were many unaccompanied minors who therefore, due to a coincidence that was predictable enough, were not so numerous during the institutional visit.

Don't Worry Dad, I'll Die Happy Because You're Alive At Least

I cannot but feel pain when confronted by the death of an innocent, and the thought that someone you love might lose their life in such an unjust way sends a long, cold shiver down your spine. The news that a father had to leave his small daughter dead at sea so as to try and save other lives during yet another maritime massacre, the harvest of murderous European policies, has disturbed me deeply. What can we possibly do to help a desperate father who has lost both wife and child?

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.

That Old Hotel at Geraci Siculo

Geraci, famous for the clean waters which flow from the nearby springs, has been host to an Emergency Reception Centre (CAS*) since 2011. During the North African emergency, the owners of the old Ventimiglia hotel decided to change profession and the hoteliers/restaurant owners became instead a coop which – first under state protection, and then with the Prefecture – manages an Emergency Reception Centre. And despite the fact that since 2011 the situation has remained unchanged both in terms of numbers and dynamics, in Geraci Siculo there is still an overwhelming climate of 'emergency', thanks to a state which looks the other way and abandons those have decided to live within the reception system.

Lampedusa: The Protests End But The Violations Continue

Up until yesterday the Hotspot at Lampedusa held around 380 people (including a dozen women). The number of unaccompanied minors was hovering around 90 people, among whom there were five young Nigerian women and girls, who arrived on the island on the same day that a fire rendered an entire building in the Contrada Imbriacola centre uninhabitable.

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.