Forced Stopover: The Time That Doesn’t Pass in Agrigento

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We spent a day with the migrants in the Villaggio Mosè in Agrigento, meeting both the managers and residents. The dynamics and practices will be familiar given that the system has generalised them, and in many cases creates conditions which are not suitable for living a dignified life. Our visit began with the “La mano […]

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Hard to Accommodate: Agrigento

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Looking over the most recent data, it seems that the practice of handing out rejections is once again in fashion at the Sicilian police stations. Last week there were rejections of 26 Moroccans and 3 Algerians in Agrigento, having arrived at Porto Empedocle on the ferry from Lampedusa. Along with them there was a Tunisian […]

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Hard to Accommodate: Lampedusa

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There are 850 migrants stuck in the Hotspot of Contrada Imbriacola, inside a (partly uninhabitable) structure which could take around 250, at most 300 people. On Lampedusa, away from eyes and hearts, anything can happen, including locking up women and children with acute problems inside a Hotspot for months at a time, without any appropriate […]

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Western Sicily: The Failure Paid For By Those In Search of Hope

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The high number (over 40) of housing communities for minors in the Province of Agrigento makes monitoring them difficult. Many of the centres of very first reception for minors, called “highly specialised” centres, are specialised in nothing other than malfunctioning. The most serious situations are to be found in Licata, Palma di Montechiaro and Porto […]

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The Voices of Those Who Are Thrown Back by the Walls and a Lethal Indifference

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In these muggy August days we have been reading tales of violence meted out on migrants in various ways: from the politician who comes up with a decree to prevent acts of solidarity extended to migrants asking for food, to teenagers who have died from the crushing effects of a society which remains indifferent to […]

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Migrants, the two faces of Lampedusa’s hotspot. Grasso: «Model». Activists: «Urine on the ceiling»

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by MeridioNews Today, the president of the senate visited the identification centre of the island. «To be overtaken as an absolute valid example of reception and solidarity», he stated. Contrary to this, the Askavusa collective published pictures of infiltration and urine bottles, filthy mattresses and dilapidated electrical systems. photo by Askavusa collective «This is the […]

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Landings at Agrigento and Palermo: “Where is my husband? Please help me!”

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Last Saturday (June 25th), the Coast Guard ship “Diciotti” disembarked 886 people at Palermo, including around 150 women, many of them very young, and 96 minors. These Nigerians, Ivorians, Guineans and Senegalese set foot in the Sicilian capital only for a few hours. Around 13 Eritreans were present, including 3 young women who were taken […]

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Western Sicily: A Week of Hell

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Over the week just gone, our attention has turned not only to the landings at Palermo, Porto Empedocle, Trapani and back to Porto Empedocle again, but also to the number of requests for help from the provinces of western Sicily, a place interesting not only for its high climatic temperatures but also the neglect, abandonment […]

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Porto Empedocle and Lampedusa: The Final Result is indiscrimination

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The arrivals are multiplying and the system, at the end of May, is already broken, despite the numbers being no greater than at the same time last year. Many continue to die, and many continue to arrive, saved from certain death, as we have seen from the tragic images taken by the Italian navy. Foto […]

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Lampedusa: The transfers and deportations resume, and the protests continue

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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. At Lampedusa, still on the edge of protest, after six days there […]

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