The reflections and memories penetrated the atmosphere of celebration and conviviality for refugee day in the “Santa Maria Goretti” shelter in Andria. «There are horrors that cannot be described in words and are lost in the sea and in the mind, but they are always present in my heart».
History
Hasan (not his real name) is just over 30 years old and comes from South Asia. Since March 2023 he has been welcomed by the Migrantesliberi cooperative in Andria. He is married and has a son who, however, is in his hometown. There he was a greengrocer, mechanic, electrician and bricklayer. Due to clashes with people in the area and to ensure medical care for his sick mother, he is forced to leave.
He arrives by plane to Dubai and from there to Libya where, as a victim of bandits, he suffers violence, humiliation and inhuman treatment which he was sure he would not survive. “They take me to an isolated house with other boys,” he says, “for three days I don’t go out and I see how far the wickedness of man can go. I have no food or water and they chain me up naked. They hit me with kicks, punches, sticks.” Sold to another group, he is forced to work despite his wounds and pain.
After a few days he manages to escape and spends two months with some of his fellow countrymen he met by chance in a village. Then he decides to leave again and look for a better job. But during the journey he is captured by some men who demand a ransom to free him. And more violence: «They put a handkerchief in my mouth and started beating me under the soles of my feet with a bundle of sticks, my feet swelled and wounds opened. To get back to my corner I’m forced to drag myself.”
The violence and the desert
Before being abandoned in the desert, tied up, he suffers atrocities that cannot be described. Rescued by some passers-by, he will work as a bricklayer to save money and leave for Lampedusa. The crossing will last four days. From there he reaches Taranto and, after ten days, arrives in Andria, where he lives. “Given the latest decree of the Ministry of the Interior that establishes that anyone with an income of more than 6 thousand euros is outside the Extraordinary Reception Centers – says Don Geremia Acri, head of the Reception House and the Migrantesliberi Community – we are the ones who do not want the paths of integration and autonomy. We are faced with a state that creates social hardship, alarmism, irregularity and black work. We continue to rage against these poor people”.
