Migrant Sicily Newsletter, May 2016
- Lampedusa:
migrants protest against inhumane treatment, for dignity and clarity - Hundreds
of new deaths and disappearances. An unacceptable daily tragedy - Unaccompanied
minors: extended detention at Pozzallo and delays in funds for the management
of Sicilian migrant centres - The
CARA* at Mineo is confirmed as the new Hotspot. Accounts of the use of force,
and deportations from Ventimiglia - A
dignified welcoming becomes merely a mirage: the case of the Gambian migrants
in Palermo, and the minors at Fondachelli - News
and events: Borderline Sicily, along with Oxfam Italia and the Diaconia
Valdese, launches the #OpenEurope project. Seminar in Catania on reception and
rejections - Info
and contacts
Lampedusa:
migrants protest against inhumane treatment, for dignity and clarity
Lampedusa
is like an open-air prison. Migrants, illegitimately detained there in
degrading conditions, have been protesting and began a hunger strike. They are
determined not to accept the continual violations of their rights, the immoral
imposition of a state that calls itself democratic, choosing not to be pawns
within a system established on the basis of the economic, political and
military interests of Fortress Europe. The reasons they provide in a press release
concern all of us:
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/lampedusa-comunicato-delle-persone.html#more
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/lampedusa-mandateci-via-da-questa.html#more
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/il-fallimento-dellhotspot-di-lampedusa.html#more
Despite the
pressure from police, protests are continuing by those in precarious health
conditions. The Hotspot is seeing punitive activities, and the first transfers
of North African citizens who have passed from a state of illegitimate
detention to forced repatriation to their country of origin.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/lampedusa-la-protesta-non-si-arresta.html
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/lampedusa-riprendono-i-trasferimenti-e.html#more
The support
and solidarity provided by anti-racist associations and by the people of
Lampedusa has been criminalised by institutional actors. Borderline Sicily
expresses its strong concern for such attitudes, and calls for respect in
relation to those who support acts of civil disobedience and peaceful protest
before a complete failure of European politics and a lack of respect for
fundamental human rights.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/cs-di-borderline-sicilia-contro-la.html
After a
long week of protesting, all the migrants present on the island have been
identified, and returned to the Hotspot, where violations of their rights and
inhumane detention continue. In the end, on an even more militarised island,
the minimum of dissent has been neutralised by those concerned with defending
their own interests.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/lampedusa-cessano-le-proteste-ma-le.html#more
Hundreds
of new deaths and disappearances. An unacceptable daily tragedy
May began
and concluded with the news of further shipwrecks and hundreds of deaths.
Bodies frequently remain only as numbers, in a daily massacre which has become
hidden or “managed” as if these were facts which emerged only in the moment of
their mass media exposure, then falling back into indifference and never put
into the context of the system which produced them. Those who do arrive – in
ever more extreme conditions, and witnesses to this continuing tragedy – find themselves
waiting within ever more militarised operations and “welcoming” centres as
barriers to their futures. And the deaths continue in the deafening silence of
out “democratic” civilisation.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/giorni-di-lutto-e-proteste.html#more
Hundreds of
migrants have again started to arrive, even via the Egyptian route. The
mechanisms of investigation, identification and selection are being
increasingly implemented at the point of disembarking, in ways irrespective of refugees’
conditions of discomfort and vulnerability, and the transfers are frequently
following a logic different from that of protection. The priorities remain
those of control and investigations so as to identify presumed people
smugglers, frequently minors, and not the protection of individuals. New
arrivals remain as bodies, and not people.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/dallegitto-allitalia-centinai-di.html
The
disembarking of thousands of people, frequently concentrated in the space of a few
days, is showing the limits to a system that is already in total collapse at
the beginning of the summer. Overcrowding, indiscriminate housing and
continuous violations are sketching out an extremely alarming picture. In this
context, a few people’s good will becomes a functioning part of a predatory
political economy, and to rebuilt faith for those who are fleeing from ever
more inhuman situations seems an impossible task.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/stiamo-ricostruendo-lemergenza.html#more
Unaccompanied
minors: extended detention at Pozzallo and delays in funds for the management
of Sicilian migrant centres
Within the
Hotspot at Pozzallo the illegitimate detentions continue, in which dozens of
unaccompanied minors are held for weeks. This is a practice that violates every
right and is made more serious by the conditions of overcrowding,
indiscriminate housing and the lack of services, as is the case in many
centres. The visit by some MPs and the accusation by various associations threw
some light on an unacceptable situation, for a few days, which has been going
on for years. But the will for concrete change seems always further away.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/hotspot-di-pozzallo-sovraffollamento-e.html
In
Agrigento there have, however, been peaceful protests by some of the managers
of centres for minors, who have demonstrated along with the residents against
the lateness of payments of ministerial funds, money that is indispensable for
covering basic expenses and guaranteeing essential services. This is a crucial question
that has direct and concrete consequences for the minors’ living conditions,
who are not protected but have instead been decisively abandoned.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/abbandono-di-minori-e-reato.html
The CARA*
at Mineo is confirmed as the new Hotspot. Accounts of the use of force, and
deportations from Ventimiglia
The CARA*
at Mineo has been designates as a future Hotspot but is already being utilised
as such. Beyond the physical structures, we have seen the Hotspot approach for
months, in a mobile and pervasive way, applied at the ports or in centres not
officially designated for this role, and frequently with the illegitimacy and violations
that characterise the Hotspots. Some migrants transferred to Mineo have stories
about beatings and the use of force by the police in order to obtain their fingerprints.
This presents, for those who continue to run, new obstacles and abuses that
nonetheless fail to prevent the desire for a future.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/al-cara-di-mineo-i-migranti-arrivati.html
Mineo has
been established as the symbolic location of illegitimate and repressive
practices. At the end of the month dozens more migrants arrived at the
Hotspot/CARA, who were rounded up at Ventimiglia and newly deported to Sicily
by plane. A true odyssey in which many minors are being bounced from one part
of the peninsula to another, always more exposed to trafficking networks and
every kind of exploitation, nourished by our system of control and
non-welcoming.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/riprende-il-gioco-delloca-per-i-minori.html
A
dignified welcoming becomes merely a mirage: the case of the Gambian migrants
in Palermo, and the minors at Fondachelli
Around
fifty Gambian migrants peacefully protested in Palermo for dignified housing
and to leave the emergency structures where they have lived for months. Aware
of their rights and rooted in the desire from freedom and dignity, they
requested no more than what is theirs by right, but which the government seems
to have no intention of guaranteeing.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/palermo-la-protesta-dei-gambiani.html#more
In the
small town of Fondachelli Fantina, in the province of Messina, the mayor and
the council bodies are directly managing a centre, housing 130 minors. The ban
on visits and the manner of interaction in relation to all associations has not
stopped us from understanding and denouncing the many violations of human
rights and illegitimate practices that are being perpetrated within this
centre.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/fondachelli-fantina-130-minori-non.html#more
Fortunately
there are some small positive realities of resistance. Borderline Sicily
visited the SPRAR centre at Pachino, a virtuous example of good reception and
individual protection, where the declared objectives of integration and social
inclusion are being translated into an effective project, introducing the
migrants to the area and returning to some of them the faith necessary in order
to build a dignified future.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/visita-allo-sprar-di-pachino-gestito.html
News and
events: Borderline Sicily, along with Oxfam Italia and the Diaconia Valdese,
launches the #OpenEurope project. Seminar in Catania on reception and
rejections
In Rome on
May 19th Oxfam Italia launched the project OpenEurope, in partnership with
Borderline Sicily and the Diaconia Valdese, designed to provide assistance to
migrants excluded from the systems for welcoming and protection. The project is
planning the use of a mobile team of Oxfam Italia workers who will move across
the provinces of eastern Sicily, so as to provide material support and legal
guidance to people in this situation. Borderline Sicily will provide legal
assistance and the Diaconia Valdese will guarantee the reception of the most
vulnerable cases.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/presentato-ieri-roma-il-progetto.html#more
On Saturday
21 May the seminar “Sicily and Migrants: A Dignified Welcome or Frontex and
Rejections?” was held in Catania, organised by the Councils Solidarity Network
(Rete dei Comuni Solidali) and in collaboration with the Catanian
Antiracist Network (Rete Antirazzista Catanese). This was an occasion
for stimulating ideas about the different bodies engaged in protecting refugees
and constructing an alternative response from below to the politics of
rejecting migrants.
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/2016/05/san-berillo-da-tuttitalia-per-parlare.html
Info and Contacts
For information about donation modalities to Borderline Sicilia Onlus
– Banca Etica Popolare di Palermo Agenzia di Via Catania, 24 IBAN IT 28 Q
0501804600000000141148 Codice BIC CCRTIT2T84A – and about updates
concerning migration in sicily go to: www.siciliamigranti.blogspot.com or
folloq us on facebook: www.facebook.com/borderlinesicilia.onlus
Our blogs:
http://siciliamigranti.blogspot.it/ →
Italian
www.siciliamigrants.blogspot.com
→ German
www.migrantsicily.blogspot.com →
English
From now on we apologise of you receive the same E-Mail twice. If you don’t
want to receive anymore the monthly newsletter or if there is any problem of
receiving it, please contact us on:
borderline-sicilia@libero.it
*CARA – Centro di accoglienza per richiedenti asilo:
reception centre for asylum seekers
