Palermo, Playing with the Futures of Unaccompanied Minors

Yet another missed call, and again it is from Ben [NB: all names have been changed], a 16 year old who insists that he has to talk to me as soon as possible. I decide to meet up with him, even if I won’t have any way as well of listening to the managing body […]

We Are Rebuilding the Emergency

Foto Alberto Biondo The piercing cry of children, the black stare of a young man accused of smuggling, the fear of a woman who cannot withstand the umpteenth queue, the uncertain advance of the hundreds who descend the steps of the Dattilo awaiting the next interminable line into the unknown. We have assisted at this […]

Fortunately 2015 ended

The numbers of 2015 are horrible, they recall homicides, daily deaths that did not seem to end, fostered by policies that have not been corrected even when confronted with racism and the deaths of children. 931 – 237 – 150 – 200 – 73 are only the numbers of the latest arrivals – of minors, […]

The factory of irregular migrants, improperly called clandestine – Press release

Borderline Sicilia expresses deep concern regarding the continuation of illicit practices at the expense of asylum seekers. From the end of September until today we have denounced on various occasions the hundreds of refoulments of migrants rescued at sea.[1] The last incidence that we heard of is of fifteen people (but they could be more) […]

October 3rd commemorated through illegal deportations

We have learned to our disdain that last monday, September 28, the police station at Ragusa gave notice for the rejection of 22 migrants from the CSPA* at Pozzallo. Among them are 9 women, of whom two have been identified as minors, and one is pregnant. Their nationalities: Madagascar, Comoros, Egypt and Somalia. Witnesses confirmed […]

We have lost even the last speck of humanity

The accounts provided by doctors present at the latest disembarkings at Palermo, Trapani and Agrigento leave no doubts about the atrocious situation being experienced by thousands of long-suffering people now arriving in Europe. More than five thousand people arrived last weekend, mainly from Eritrea, Nigeria, Ghana and Afghanistan: all of them fleeing situations of war, […]

When the TV cameras are turned off

On August 24, the Italian ship Vega carried 548 people who had been rescued at sea to Palermo. The majority of those aboard were women and children. Amongst them were many unaccompanied minors; 130 on arrival. Yet after the identification procedure had been carried out, that number somehow had gone down to 45. The reception […]

So much hypocrisy and confusion, only one certainty: death – Palermo

Nowadays, telling the story of what happens in Sicily around the migratory fluxes is even more difficult – under some point of view even distressing. Around us there are the ghosts meandering within the ineffectiveness of the centres of “un-“reception and the dead disembarking in plywood boxes, which somebody still calls coffins. Indeed the dead, […]

The bodies at the bottom of the ocean are not part of the market

The latest shameful episode in Europe’s immigration system concerns the treatment of those who have lost their lives at sea. According to Salvi, the public prosecutor, the 900 bodies from recent tragedies will not be recuperated from the sea due to the high costs of such an operation. The problem has instead been passed on […]

They are being taken for a ride – Part 1

The time has come for us to be much clearer with the words we choose to put down on the page, on blogs, on social networks. We always maintain that there is a massacre taking place, the cross hairs placed on those migrants travelling by sea, on those who are searching desperately for a moment […]