CASERTA – On Saturday 11 May 2024, at 10.30 am in the square of the Prefecture of Caserta, an anti-racist demonstration will be held on the issues of reception, inclusion and special protection promoted by the Ex Canapificio social center, by the Caserta Migrant and Refugee Movement in collaboration with other local realities. As a network of associations active for decades in the province of Caserta, we believe that the legislative changes introduced by law 50/2023 are having a very negative impact on the already precarious lives of many immigrants present in our territories. The wicked choices of the Government which dismantled the Sai reception system and weakened an important instrument such as the residence permit for special protection, and the recent Immigration and Asylum Pact voted in Europe in April, are in fact creating new irregularities by trampling on the rights of foreigners living in our territory.
A territory in which the migratory phenomenon, for various reasons, presents very particular characteristics and which, however, despite all the difficulties, has been able to express the talent of one of our fellow citizens and historical activist of the Migrant and Refugee Movement of Caserta, Mamadou Kouassi Pli Adama, whose true story inspired Matteo Garrone’s film “Io Capitano”, winner of 7 David di Donatello awards, a Silver Lion and candidate for the 2024 Oscars.
After a thousand vicissitudes Mamadou manages to arrive in Italy and moves to Caserta, where thanks to a welcoming community represented by Caritas, by the Ex Canapificio Social Centre, by the Fernandes Centre, by interlocution with the institutions, by the welcome of the then SPRAR (now SAI) manages to have a residence permit for humanitarian reasons (now special protection) and all those social and training tools thanks to which he was able to represent his story like the story of many other “captains”.
If Mamadou had landed today, what would have happened to “the Captain”? Without a roof for the activities implemented by the Social Centre, the supportive community, the special protection and the Sai reception project?
For this Saturday there will be many of us in front of the Prefecture Square to talk about the problems relating to the issues of immigration, inclusion and reception in the province of Caserta and to ask the Municipality and the Region to commit to starting the works of renovation of the “Mamadou Sy” social house, located within the Ex Onmi and reactivation of the Sai of Caserta, a reception model that is a symbol of Italy in Europe.
