The Shanty Town at Cassibile at the Point of Emergency: “Employers Should Guarantee Accomodation”

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From MeridioNews.it – CRONACA – Seventy-nine African men camped out in more than 50 shacks on private land. Without water nor electricity and in appalling hygenic and sanitary conditions. All of this has been reported to the public prosecutor but finding an alternative living situation for them is not easy. “We are trying to work together” […]

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Homeless and Rightsless

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In Italy, the malfunctioning of administrative procedures represents a continuous source of bureaucratic dragging, demeaning periods of waiting and vicious downwards circles. One of the greatest problems relates to the police stations’ request for official residence documents and/or hospitality documents in order to be able to process the issuing or renewal of permits to stay, […]

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The landing of the Aquarius ship in Augusta

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Yesterday afternoon the Aquarius ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée anchored in the harbour of Augusta with 215 people aboard, of which 38 are women – 5 who are pregnant – and 34 unaccompanied minors. 

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After The Landing, Human Rights On Hold: The Case Of The Extraordinary Reception Centre at Rosolini

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Mohamed and Ahmed (not their real names) arrived in Sicily on the first of July. The Swedish ship BKV 002 to which they were transferred while still at sea brought them into the port of Catania along with 650 other migrants and 9 bodies. “It was extraordinary to think that just one step more and […]

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“We Can’t Stop”. The Signs Of The Borders Written On The Bodies Of Those Who Arrive

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“It was a long journey, but I put some money aside from my ‘pay’ these last few months. And I had an accident too, when my finger was crushed. My friends took me to the hospital and they had to amputate it. I’m better now though, I’m in a reception centre, I can talk and […]

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Deaths at the Border. Control and Repression Replacing Reception

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“Four survivors from a ship packed with 193 people”. “The numbers of missing are imprecise, but in the hundreds.” “Eight bodies but a massacre feared”. By now we do not speak about the dead, but those who did “not survive”, making calculations by exclusion. It is increasingly difficult to know how many people continue to […]

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Migrants turned away from Catania and Syracuse

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On 30 September 2015 between 10-11am, a boat arrived in the port of Catania. It had aboard 234 migrants, who had been put together from two separate rescues: one boat with 124 people; one with 110 people. This information was gathered from the few migrants who stayed in Catania. The majority of the group were […]

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Crossing the ocean at age 12. Hundreds of minors have reached the Sicilian coast

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The number of unaccompanied minors who come across the ocean to Sicily is rapidly and continuously increasing. With almost every landing, dozens if not hundreds of teenagers are registered who take on the crossing alone and they keep getting younger, such as the 154 Egyptian minors who arrived at Augusta on September, 4th. The fortress […]

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A free choice which cannot be bordered

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The European Commission has adopted the long awaited European Agenda on Migration these days. Major coverage and attention have been given to the strengthening of the mandate of FRONTEX and to the fight against human traffickers by making available new funding schemes and by planning joint maritime border control operations. There have also been proposals […]

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A visit to the ‘new’ reception centre at Rosolini: asylum seekers waiting since August for procedures to start.

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It is not easy to reach the CAS* ‘Alessandro Frasca SAS’ in Rosolini, at least for those who are not from around there. Once you have left the village and followed the winding road which leads to the nearby quarries, the only way to find the centre is to ask passersby for the former nightclub […]

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