A 30 year old man he wants to throw himself into the Po in Piacenza: he is a migrant that was seen reject the asylum request, he is desperate. He calls the lawyer who handled his case and says he wants to get it over with. On the other end of the line, the lawyer Michela Cucchetti, speaks to him to maintain telephone contact until she manages to understand where she is: she saves him while he is already in the water. It happened in the early afternoon of Friday 26 April. She is the same lawyer Michela Cucchettia tell it, soaked, on the bank of the Po: «My client, a 30-year-old Nigerian national, who has been in Italy for ten years and is regular in our territory – explains the lawyer – is trying to obtain the request Of asylum». But the continuous regulatory changes, including the inclusion of Nigeria in the villages defined “safe”, have determined the irrelevance of the person’s social inclusion path to fulfill the request. «Even though she has a job at indefinite period and have one home – continues the lawyer – this boy has been visible since 2018 reject the request of asylum”. And he adds: «Not even the appeal to the Court of Cassation was successful, so we reiterated the request for asylum, which however was not accepted».
“I want to end it”
From here, within the time allowed for appealing, the boy is invited to present himself at the lawyer’s office. «He was supposed to come to me on Sunday but he told me that was not feeling well and that was it Fed up of this situation.” In the late morning of April 26th, it reaches its climax. «It was a phone call chilling: told me that he wanted to end it – explains the lawyer, still drenched and dirty from having thrown herself into the Po -. Understanding that the situation was serious, together with my collaborators we went out to look for it and in the meantime I continued to talk to him to try to dissuade him and to To gain some time».
The research and the phone call to buy time
In the meantime, the alarm is raised to 118 and to the police. Finally, a detail appears in that conversation: «I’m under the bridge of the river”. «I then understood that it was likely to be found along via Nino Bixio, on the banks of the Po». And while a downpour hits Piacenza, the lawyer Cucchetti together with other people spots him right at the end of a small stopover. The alarm is raised but, while waiting for the rescuers to arrive, the 30-year-old is already with our legs in the waterto. «I did the only thing I could do: try to reach him to prevent him from ending up completely at the mercy of currents». So, both remain bogged down in that sand soaked in water. A few moments and two fire brigade vehicles arrive, a White Cross ambulance, the 118 medical vehicle and a Carabinieri gazelle with operators who reach them and pull them out of that quicksand safe and sound. The 30-year-old was taken for checks to the emergency room of the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital.
