RESCUED WHAT NEXT? PROTECTION SEEKERS STRANDED in SICILY “This Is No Life to Live
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Jesuit Refugee Service October 2014 RESCUED WHAT NEXT? PROTECTION SEEKERS STRANDED IN SICILY “This is no life to live. I am tired of my life, I swear, I burn myself so I won’t think anymore because I can’t take it. I have no hope for the future in Italy. I thought that once I got a document, I could study, but nothing happened. After seven years, my hands are still tied, I went nowhere so what’s the point? I don’t care about my life anymore – I’m tired. I’ve lost seven years, I could not go to school, I could not work, so why give me a document at all?” Jawad WWheen thee miggrarants arririve in LLampmpededussa,a thehey soon reae lise ththeeyy havve a loonngg way to gog beb ffoorre theey hah veve a chahancn e off ggettttinng thhe pprrottectionon thheey neeeedd. Table of Contents Introduction 2 Rescued: what next? 2 Mare Nostrum 2 We need a plan! 4 A painfully poor response 5 A question of goodwill Why we are writing this booklet 6 I went nowhere so what’s the point? 8 An overview of our fi ndings You have to queue for everything 12 Life at CARA di Mineo Wait, wait, wait 16 The asylum procedure All my bones used to hurt 20 Sleeping on the street Without work, what can I do? 24 Looking on the brighter side 27 Everywhere you have the good and the bad 30 Glossary 33 Recommendations 34 | Rescued – What Next? | 1 Introduction Rescued: what next? Mare Nostrum who cross the Mediterranean in In October 2013, hundreds of forced overcrowded and unseaworthy boats. migrants who left Libya in a bid to While tragedies continue to happen, reach Europe died when two boats Mare Nostrum has saved more capsized in the Mediterranean Sea than 100,000 lives. Sadly, the Italian within barely a week of one another. government has indicated it may well be unable to extend the operation into Sadly it comes as no surprise that a second year. people should die while seeking asylum and a life in dignity in a country more The increased number of boats peaceful, democratic and developed intercepted thanks to Mare Nostrum than their own. Their journey is usually – combined, no doubt, with war undertaken via illegal and hence highly and stubborn instability in so many risky channels because it is the only countries – has led to a leap in the way to travel without the required number of forced migrants landing documents – destination countries on the islands of Sicily and, to a lesser guard their borders jealously. The real extent, Lampedusa. In 2014 alone, number of those who perish in the 100,000 had reached Italian shores by attempt is unknown, because many August, and there were days when up deaths go unrecorded, but is surely to nearly 1,000 people disembarked. astronomical. UNHCR says 1,889 people died in the fi rst eight months of 2014 We need a plan! while crossing the Mediterranean to try Italy’s fi rst-level reception systems to reach Europe. are totally unprepared to cope with such large numbers and are stretched What drew international attention and way beyond their limits. Centres condemnation to these two incidents are overcrowded and new arrivals was the fact that they happened so sometimes end up sleeping in tents. In close to shore – one was in full view of Sicily, they are hastily accommodated the Italian island of Lampedusa – and in gyms, sports grounds, churches and that the number of casualties was so other public spaces that then need to high. In one boatload, entire families of be cleared for their proper use. Syrian asylum seekers perished. A Caritas Catania statement issued In the wake of the October 2013 on 20 July 2014 denounced the tragedies, the Italian government “indiff erence” surrounding the launched Mare Nostrum (our sea), reception of new arrivals and drew a maritime operation aimed at attention to a gym called Palaspedini, rescuing asylum seekers and migrants where people were sleeping on foul- 2 | Jesuit Refugee Service | JuJ sts arrr ivi edd in Lampede ussa.a smelling mattresses in hot, restricted with the extra burden imposed by the and dirty spaces marked out by reception of new arrivals. iron railings. Don Piero Galvano, the director of Caritas Catania, said: However local media and NGOs “Migrants deserve more dignity and consistently point to a glaring fl aw in respect. If any of us had to live in the the provisional and disorganised nature conditions in which the immigrants are of the response: they say the Sicilian accommodated, wouldn’t he expect authorities are still treating the sea of help, respect and welcome from arrivals as an “emergency” when in others?” reality it is anything but. So-called ‘boat people’ have been arriving to Sicily The mayors of Sicilian towns, more for the past 20 years, and while it is used to welcoming tourists for short true that numbers spiked in 2014, the seaside holidays, complain that they arrivals are no longer as unexpected are on the verge of collapse and as before. With the Italian naval forces desperately need more human and actively rescuing people and bringing fi nancial resources. The police are hard them in, the authorities should be pressed to cope with their usual duties in a position to put more systematic of preserving law and order together structures in place. | Rescued – What Next? | 3 Introduction This is what the central Italian end up sleeping on the streets, at the government has been trying to mercy of anyone who decides to exploit do in recent months. Realising the their want and misery. impossibility of a strategy that places on the south of the country all the Countless asylum seekers do not onus of hosting forced migrants and stay in the system. They avoid being processing their asylum claims, Italy fi ngerprinted on arrival and vanish into has decided to revamp the entire oblivion. Many continue their journey reception system. Starting around to reach European countries further the spring of 2014, the government north. At all costs, they are determined set up an emergency parallel system to bypass the restrictive Dublin that dispersed some asylum seekers Regulation, by which European Union throughout Italy. In July, legal steps states return asylum seekers to the fi rst were taken to formalise and fund member state they entered, Italy, in this system with a three-year plan to this case. Statistics bear out this reality: dispatch new arrivals immediately to in the fi rst seven months of 2014, there regional hubs. were 83,000 boat arrivals and 25,000 asylum applications in Italy. Other A painfully poor response forced migrants who circumvent the While the steps taken by the Italian system get stuck in Sicily, where their government appear to be in the undocumented status makes them right direction, it is still early days prey to exploitation by organised crime to gauge the eff ectiveness of their rackets for drugs, prostitution and implementation. Meanwhile the agricultural labour (see also page 26). response in Sicily, however well meaning, remains mostly one of panic, of ReR centtlyly arrr ivvedd miggrants superfi cial and ad-hoc acccoommmodated at the measures that deliver PaPalasppeddinni gym iinn Catatana iaia, ann arrr anngeg meentt thahat wawas a painfully poor service crc iticizeed by thhe local Caritaas.s to forced migrants. The inadequate response persists throughout the asylum procedure and even when (and if) the migrants get some kind of protection or permission to stay in Italy. The system is drastically under- resourced and there is not nearly enough of anything to go around. Thousands 4 | Jesuit Refugee Service | CaCatatanin aa, 10 Auguust 2010 44: A boaatlt oaoad ofof mim grrants arrivedd at dadawnwn. SiSix did eded as they tried to swimm to the bebeach annd their bodid es wasa heed up on tht e shhoro ee. For those who choose to stay in the high standards of calls for tenders system, Sicilian NGOs have long been are frequently skirted in practice by urging the authorities to come up with unscrupulous entities that have the a plan that has suffi cient resources, right connections but lack the requisite humanity and oversight to make it competence and experience. Of course workable. the situation gets worse in times of emergency. One local newspaper A question of goodwill article about a possible scandal linked Many NGOs, including faith-based to the running of an accommodation agencies, are doing a wonderful job centre was aptly headlined: “Business in reaching out to refugees and other profughi” (Refugee business). It is a forced migrants. But the task is far from colossal business indeed and, in Sicily, easy. Apart from the overwhelming there is always the risk of organised needs, it can be deeply frustrating crime infi ltrating the sector. to run services in this sector due to rampant corruption. For some, Another serious problem is the near- immigration is nothing more than total lack of offi cial oversight of the a profi table racket, and people are services that cater to asylum seekers objects to be fl eeced as much as and refugees. Professional and humane possible. The state outsources the behaviour ultimately boils down to management of accommodation a question of goodwill and personal centres and other services to the private conscience. So while some associations and non-profi t sectors (whether the and individuals deliver a very good partner is private or non-profi t depends service, others do not and sometimes on the kind of centre).