Immigration. The call for reception centres in the province of Trapani and the investigations in the centres.

From Tp24
Among inquiries and parliamentary interrogations, the reception system for migrants is ready to change its profile in the province of Trapani. The deal is a radical change which is going to structurally overthrow the approach to the immigration issue. “We are no longer in a state of emergency – prefect Leopoldo Falco says – we can manage now”. Emergency is the key word which authorized unspeakable things in these last years (from the hell of Vulpitta, a reception centre, onwards) but that could now become archeology.

These are the premises for the call for tenders, published few days ago by the Trapani prefecture, which is making the whole organization for assigning people in the centres start from scratch.
The assignment is well articulated, if compared to similar offer calls. It refers to 2.000 migrants, spread over four local sites (first site: Trapani, Erice, Paceco, Valderice, Buseto Palizzolo, Custonaci and San Vito Lo Capo; second: Alcamo, Castellamare del Golfo, Calatafimi, Salemi and Vita; third: Marsala, Mazara del Vallo and Petrosino; fourth: Castelvetrano, Campobello di Mazara, Partanna, Gibellina, Poggioreale, Salaparuta and Santa Ninfa). The 2.000 migrants are already present in the CAS* spread all over the province, so their number is not going to change. “We need to accelerate the outflow of migrants seeking for international protection toward CARA* structures”, so says the assignment. But that is not the only purpose.
A lot of the so far opened centres obtained their convention through a direct assignment, without any call for tenders. A choice which was supported by prefect Falco, until the reassignment call for 600 places was temporarily assigned to a company involved in the scandal of “Mafia Capitale”. The contract call is now secured and the assignment standards are very strict. For the first time the “registration of residents” will become mandatory, with “a daily report containing the number of residents, destined to the Prefecture which is going to control them together with the local police”. Then the agreement goes into details, specifying the amount of working hours of diurnal and night operators, about social-psychological assistants, social assistance, linguistic mediation and legal information.
In the province, the Prosecution is conducting an investigation on the centre managing system and – waiting for the investigative results – prefect Falco’s intention could block any kind of failure. According to the call, each centre will be able to host between 20 and 200 migrants, while an operating company cannot apply for more than 200 residents. The aim is to bypass any kind of monopoly, like the one signaled by the Prosecution, after the arrest of priest Sergio Librizzi (then sentenced to nine years of imprisonment in a short proceeding on grounds of sexual abuse). Just now, investigators are keeping up with long and tiring interrogations to Onofrio (called Norino) Fratello, a UDC* politician who was sentenced to two months of imprisonment in 2008, on grounds of involvement in a mafia organization. Fratello had gotten roped into it by Lorenzo La Rocca, chairman of the Letizia Cooperative, who told Carabinieri of Castellammare del Golfo during an interrogation that he was nothing more than the politician’s dummy. The investigation is complex and soon the TV series “le Iene” will deepen the topic.
But in the meantime, the issue of the Hotspot in Milo remains open. Born from the ashes of the former CIE*, the structure received migrants disembarked in Catania for their identification procedures, while last week seven Eritrean migrants have been transferred there because they did not want to give their fingerprints in Lampedusa. Last, there is the story of those 196 migrants, who were first rejected, then accepted in the traditional asylum system. The episode occurred on January 3rd -5th and on this issue Senators of Movimento 5 Stelle presented a parliamentary issue to minister Angelino Alfano last January 14th. In the text Senators want to know whether “in the Hotspot offices of Milo, operators and humanitarian organizations have given all information needed to migrants so as they can request their asylum right” and how the ministry intends “avoid” similar situations which would lead to an exponential circulation of “homeless people”. That is a question which could receive an answer right in these weeks: opening a Hub.
The topic has been discusses by prefect Falco and Minister Alfano last Saturday in Palermo: it looks like a suitable facility of at least 150 seats has been found. That is the core of “relocation”, the scheme designed by the European Commission which is hourly delayed.
With all due respect to migrants.
Marco Bova

Translated by Fernanda Pecile

*CAS: Centro di accoglienza straordinaria: Extraordinary Reception Centre
*CARA: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers
*UDC: Unione di Centro: Christian Democratic Centre party
*CIE: Centro di Identificazione ed Espulsione: Immigration Detention and Deportation Centre