Migrant Landing at Pozzallo: “Improvised, Overcrowded Centres, The Closed Borders Are Pushing the Reception System into Collapse”
Paola
Ottaviano from Borderlin Sicily, an association of legal experts
which is extremely active in assisting migrants, explains the
situation of the Sicilian Hotspot: “The Italian system of helping
migrants has not been reorganised, nor rethought through so as to
manage this consistent influx of people.”
When
you see them disembark without shoes, with their arms and legs marked
by cuts and burns, with confused gazes, you ask yourself what their
future holds. Where they will be taken, if they will be listened to
with respect, be protested, heard – or if, on the contrary, they
will remain for months within the so-called Hotspots such as that at
Pozzallo. Overcrowded, filthy complexes where humanity is forgotten.
With
around 6,000 new arrivals on our coasts in the last two days, the
Italian reception system is collapsing even more. 153,450 migrants landed in the first 10 months of 2016, of whom 20,000 are
unaccompanied minors. This represents an increase of 10% in
comparison with the same period last year.
“The
number is much greater than in the past, but no one could possibly
talk of an emergency”, comments Paola Ottaviano from Borderline
Sicily,
an association of legal experts which is extremely active in
assisting migrants, as well as making official complaints regarding
cases of failed reception. “Given the situation in Libya, what’s
happening here is entirely predictable and calculable.” The
reception system is being pushed into collapse – Ottaviano explains
– by the closing of the borders. “The Hotspot approach includes
Italy being responsible for 100% of identifications, and Europe for
the relocations. But the result has been that of the 160,000
positions foreseen for migrants arriving in Italy and Greece, there
have been only 5,000 “relocated” thus far. In the meantime, our
reception system has not been reorganised, nor rethought through so
as to manage this consistent influx of people.”
Every
day there are official complaints against new cases of failed
reception in Sicily, Borderline’s legal experts emphasise.
“Improvised, overcrowded centres, lack of qualified staff,
degrading and out of control situations.” Those who pay the most
are frequently the unaccompanied minors. “The Prefecture has
promised the opening of new “emergency” reception centres for 50
minors at most. But these centres would automatically be the
‘extraordinary’ reception centres where young people risk being
abandoned for months” Ottaviano concludes.
Anna
Vullo
Project “OpenEurope” – Oxfam Italia, Diaconia Valdese, Borderline Sicilia Onlus
Translation:
Richard Braude
