- Dying in Silence: dozens of migrants continue to lose their lives at sea
- Landings, transfers, reception: the emergency approach only produces violence
- A minor logic: young people in flight detained, with no dignified reception
- Parliamentary visits at Pozzallo, Mineo and Lampedusa
- Messina: New funds for the reception system, and rumours of a future Hotspot
- Events: Two international meetings in Palermo: “In flight from Libya, who really are the presumed boat drivers?”, a EACEA KideM project; and “Borders, Reception and Rights in Sicily and Europe”, a day of workshops and dialogue organised with the Evimed project.
- News: a course in Global Management, an education program designed for young graduates from Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco
- Info and contact
Dying
in Silence: dozens of migrants continue to lose their lives at sea
At the
port of Augusta operations have begun for the recovery of the remains
of the shipwreck 18 months ago, and the harrowing recognition of the
corpses. The possibility of a raised collective awareness, as many
activists have noted, found new physical and ideological barriers
constructed within the operation itself, while the deaths continue on
the sea. Within a few days, 11 bodies of migrants came in to Catania,
among the usual promises from institutional agents, and an ever more
unstable and disorderly management of the new arrivals.
In the
environs of the Libyan coasts and the Canal of Sicily, those who are
forced to nourish exploiters and risk their lives for a better
future, continue to die in silence, faced with a generalised
indifference. Almost every landing is now accompanied by the arrival
of at least one corpse, but only the catching of presumed
boat-drivers/people smugglers and witnesses is met with preparation
and speedy work, in a space where safeguards and protection seems to
be suspended.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/dozens-of-corpses-on-libyan-beaches.html
We
continue to assist with and document inhumane, atrocious situations
in which the dead are only forgotten and hidden, and the cruel
journey towards the arrest, identification, rejection and deportation
of those who survive.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/the-dead-sea-cant-take-them-any-more.html
Landings,
Transfers, Reception: The Emergency Approach Only Produces Violence
The
emergency approach is presented as the only solution. From the
decisions at port landings, handed down from above without any
consideration for the situation on the ground, to the lack of trained
staff, for whom the greater number of arrivals frequently corresponds
to a decrease in the possibility for protection. The level of
emergency is also kept high in order to allow otherwise suspect
investments by professionals in the reception business. At the same,
it allows the continuation of illegal practices such as the transfer
of minors into the Hotspots, and the hurried singling out of economic
migrants, a practice which only creates invisible, unregulated people
across our country.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/western-sicily-week-of-hell.html
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/landings-at-agrigento-and-palermo-where.html
The lack
of clarity and transparency in the identification procedures carried
out from the moment of arrival accompanies the absence of individual
and collective protection guaranteed by law. Safeguards and humane
responses are made impossible for those who find themselves in a
Hotspot, a tent-city or the hastened route along the quay. The
transferrals are being undertaken in a concerning manner in Catania
too: without pauses and with very little food, the migrants are
subjected to another journey as soon as they arrive.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/so-many-arrivals-so-little-protection.html
In Italy
the number of refugees from Yemen is rising, fleeing a war to which
our government continues to contribute and nourish through the
exporting of arms to Saudi Arabia. This is the great hypocrisy of a
system which never be overemphasised.
A minor
logic: young people in flight detained, with no dignified reception
The
dramatic situation of unaccompanied minors continues across the
region. The testimony of dozens of minors detained within the Hotspot
at Pozzallo, consequently met in the city, has formed the object of
an accusatory exposure presented by Borderline Sicily, in the remit
of the OpenEurope project in partnership with Oxfam and the Diaconia
Valdese. It has been sent to the Prosecutor of the Republic at the
Court for minors in Catania, and the Prosecutor for the Republic in
Ragusa. Faced with such illegitimate practices, it is increasingly
necessary to re-establish a state of law, abandoning the rhetoric of
a functional incapacity which only defends the interests of the few.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/minors-in-pozzallo-hotspot-on.html
In
Palermo, the managers of asylum seeker centres protest against the
lack of transfer of funds by the Ministry of the Interior, while the
city council admits to being at the point of collapse, no longer
having any more appropriate buildings to house the almost 1,000
minors currently present in the city. Those who have housing are put
in emergency centres without specialised personnel, where abandonment
and a lack of information, services and protection is creating
conditions which tend towards every kind of danger, unrest and
exploitation.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/palermo-playing-with-futures-of.html
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/agrigento-trapani-and-palermo-arrivals.html
The
illegitimate practices documented within the reception centres,
Hotspots and tent-cities are varied. Young people have been abandoned
within a completely failed system, or left on the street. In many
cases they are extremely young, determined to continue their path of
escape on their own, without any protections.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/boys-on-outside.html
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/the-violence-reproduced-by-emergency.html
Parliamentary
Visits to Pozzallo, Mineo and Lampedusa
The Parliamentary commission of inquiry toured the main sites of the
reception centres in Sicily dedicated to identification. The
situation within the Hotspot of Pozzallo is critical and concerning,
in which the only procedures following with efficiency and attention
seem to be those relating to identification, and not protection.
At Mineo, however, the parliamentarians saw how the only possible
objective is the emptying of the centre, proposing the model provided
by the SPRAR* network as an alternative for the reception system. At
the same time, the investigations of the “Mafia Capital” inquiry
continue, which have seen the involvement of the managers of the
CARA* at Mineo, but who are already in the process of tendering for
the contract of the area's future Hotspot.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/the-parliamentary-commission-fails.html
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/the-cara-at-mineo-once-again-at-centre.html
A sensation was caused, however, by the visit of the President of the
Senate to the Hotspot at Lampedusa. Grasso described the Hotspot as
an exportable model of reception, while some activists on the island
denounced the indecent and inhumane conditions in the centre,
opposing the ideological narratives, pinned to economic returns,
gained at the expense of migrants' rights.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/07/migrants-two-faces-of-lampedusas.html
Messina:
New funds for the reception system, and rumours of a future Hotspot
At the beginning of June the confirmation arrived of the creation of
a future Hotspot at Messina, a hypothesis already given air at the
beginning of the year. The opposition from civil society has been
resumed, while there is only weak resistance from citizen
organisations, who seem powerless.
In
the meantime, on May 30th,
the Ministry of the Interior signed the decree for the 2016-17
financing of projects presented by local bodies for the opening of
SPRAR services for asylum seekers and refugees. The financial
resources from the Ministry in the Peloritani has reconfirmed their
shamelessness in entrusting the management of the majority of the
reception business to managing bodies and people who have ended up
more than once in the daily news relating to court cases.
Events:
Two international meetings in Palermo: “In flight from Libya, who
really are the presumed boat drivers?”, a EACEA KideM project; and
“Borders, Reception and Rights in Sicily and Europe”, a day of
workshops and dialogue organised with the Evimed project.
July saw
the second meeting in Palermo within the remit of the international
EACEA-KideM project, of which Borderline Sicily is a partner. What do
we really know of the current situation in Libya? Who rules, between
the militia and the government forces? What does this situation mean
for migrants? A debate with the freelance journalist Nancy Porsia:
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/in-flight-from-libya-who-are-presumed.html
A day of
workshops and dialogue was held, again in Palermo, within the remit
of the international research project EVI-MED, run by Middlesex
University London in collaboration with Borderline Sicily and the
University of Palermo. Borders, reception and rights in Europe were
the main topics.
http://migrantsicily.blogspot.it/2016/06/borders-reception-and-rights-in-sicily.html
News: a
course in Global Management, an education program designed for young
graduates from Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco
The
universities of Palermo, Messina and Enna are organizing a course in
Global Management designed for 35 young graduates, with free
participation and the possibility to receive a student bursary for
the participants.
Info
and Contacts
For
information on how to donate
to Borderline
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and
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Sicilia Onlus
* SPRAR = Sistema di protezione per richiedenti asilo e rifugiati (System for the protection of asylum seekers and refugees)
* CARA = *CARA: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers
* SPRAR = Sistema di protezione per richiedenti asilo e rifugiati (System for the protection of asylum seekers and refugees)
* CARA = *CARA: Hosting Centre for Asylum Seekers
Translation:
Richard Braude
