Frontex headquarter is a shame for Catania
Enough with racism and militarization: we will prevent the opening!
The announcement of the opening of an Frontex agency office in Catania is an insult and a great shame for the whole city. The Mayor of the city is guilty of a reckless act which is totally incompatible with the common feeling of the city. Catania is a city, open for antiracist welcoming and has always functioned as a bridge between people. The agency Frontex and the operation Triton are military programs of the European Union focusing on the closure of borders and the refoulement of migrants which have nothing to do with the acceptance and saving the lives of those who due to hunger, war and despair are forced to cross the Mediterranean sea on insecure boats as slaves and victims of human trafficking.
The festivities of one part of the political world in front of this announcement appear terrifying and demonstrate once again the enormous hypocrisy of those who pretend to weep for the deaths in the sea and for the massacres of migrants and become accomplice of policies, such as Frontex, which do nothing but feeding racism, shipwrecks and human trafficking.
Sicily has been over the years more and more militarized. Sigonella, the Muos, drones, arms depots, radars in Lampedusa have turned it into an arsenal of war under open sky. In the same way the opening of the CIE* and Cara** of Mineo have made it the largest camps for migrants in Europe.
We can not accept a further militarization of our coasts and in our seas, we can not just look while thousands of women, children and men die in the Mediterranean sea and Europe cares only about closing its borders.
To save human lives, we need to build humanitarian corridors with North Africa, to manage the phenomenon of migration and refugees , a radical change in immigration policies and the establishment of a European asylum law is a must. Frontex and Triton are unacceptable and racist acts of war against migrants.
The use of a public space, such as the Monastery of Santa Chiara, to accommodate a section of the agency Frontex and the military headquarters of the operation Triton is an insult to the entire city that sees more and more reduced social spaces destined to schools, social services, aggregation, integration. Just while they shut down, removed by the city, a school that offered language classes for migrants, fighting early school leaving and adult education, Mayor Bianco agrees to give one of the most important buildings of the city for the coordination of military operations.
We will not accept any of this. We announce right from the beginning the mobilization to prevent that Catania hosts the headquarters of Frontex. Catania is a city of peace and acceptance. Frontex has no right to occupy our building.
No more shipwrecks in the Mediterranean sea!
The Fortress Europe is the reason of the massacres!
Catania Bene Comune, Rete Antirazzista Catanese , Arci, Comitato di base No Muos-No Sigonella, Rifondazione Comunista, Unione degli Studenti, La Città Felice, Comitato Popolare Experia
*CIE: Identification and expulsion center
*CARA: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers
Translation: Catherine Scholz
