Migrants being abandoned and CPA* under investigation

Corriere di Ragusa – 4 pm, at the gates of the reception centre in Pozzallo harbour: 33 people who appointed themselves as Moroccan, are expelled from the centre and must reach within 7 days Fiumicino Airport, where they must board a plane which will take them back to their homeland. Every migrant is holding a deportation document signed by the commissioner of Ragusa, Giuseppe Gammino. Every migrant must reach the capital within 7 days, but no one knows how.”We don’t have a dime – a migrant says – We do not even know where we will sleep tonight. We asked to sleep at the centre, but they said no. We are left alone and being abandoned”. Immigration Police officers delivered the deportation documents to the Moroccans. The 33 people were given food at noon but, due to the closure of the reception centre, they had to leave the centre by foot. Many of them know neither Italian nor English.

Meanwhile, in the midnight between Friday and Saturday, the first landing of 2015 took place. 242 people (230 men, 6 women and 6 children ) arrived on the commercial dock of the port. Out of these 242, 209 left for reception centers outside Sicily. The Migrants are from Morocco, Gambia, Syria, Senegal and Mali. They got off the ship, ” Peluso ” belonging to the Coast Guard. The new comers were taken off the Libyan coast (wasn’t “Mare Nostrum” over? Ndr) and brought to safety in Sicily. Five were the coaches used at the port, five were the destinations where the migrants have been transferred: Ancona, Bari, Perugia, L’Aquila and Florence .

The 33 migrants, hosted for the morning in the CPA of Ragusa, found the center without hot water , because the heater, that was ordered by the Prefecture of Ragusa in the early days of January, is yet to come. However, a meeting at the prefecture between the administration and the municipal prefect, Annunziato Vardè, is scheduled for next Tuesday. The aim of the meeting is to find a quick solution that will lead to a three-year tender notice and a renewed management of the center, after the “scandal” of the investigation carried on by the Finance Police of Ragusa and instructed by the public prosecutor’s office. However, as pointed out by the prosecutor’s office, any notice stood out yet, because apparently the investigation is not concluded. Who points out to have nothing to do with the investigation is the cooperative that, until 31st of January (except for future extensions), will manage the CPA. That is the “Luoghi Comuni” of Acireale. As pointed out in a note “The consortium group “Luoghi Comuni”, to prevent future misunderstandings and for clarity reasons, stronglyemphazise its total non-involvement in the issue”. The cooperative took over the centre since the beginning of December, a period after that under investigation.

Finally, a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on Cie* and on Cara* will start in a few days, thanks to the work of the parliament-member Marialucia Lorefice (Movimento 5 Stelle), together with two other spokepersons: Vega Colonnese and Joseph Brescia . “Thanks to the activities of the committee, all certain and presumed critical issues related to the reception system in our country will be investigated with further efficacy”. “The Movimento 5 Stelle – says the parliament member coming from Ragusa – keeps making reports to the Prefecture of Ragusa and all other Sicilian prefectures, as we are doing since two years. We will keep demanding concrete actions and we will use all the legislative tools available to contain as much as possible, possible infiltrations into the reception centers system, which is very rewarding”. Lorefice concludes that “to undermine this business the full cooperation of all the public institutions is necessary, with particular reference to the territorial ones”.

*CPA: centre of first accomodation
*Cie: detention centre
*Cara: reception centre for asylum seekers

Translation: Alessandra Mancini