At the request of the Ministry of the Interior, the Councilor for Infrastructure and Transport of the Sicilian Region, Alessandro Aricò, authorized the extraordinary transfer of 300 migrants through an extraordinary run of the “Lampedusa” ferry. The ship will take them from Pantelleria to Termini Imerese.
“The Region’s commitment to dealing with the emergency continues – says Aricò – by trying to make the available means more operational. At the same time, we pay attention to the needs of citizens, avoiding burdening user services.”
600 people arriving from Porto Empedocle in Reggio Calabria
600 migrants who were in Porto Empedocle arrive in Reggio Calabria in the afternoon. In fact, the P. Veronese ferry is scheduled to arrive in port at 4pm with the 600 people on board. the Prefecture has already activated the reception mechanism.
180 from Lampedusa on a flight to Bergamo
There are 180 migrants who will soon begin to be transferred from the Imbriacola hotspot to Lampedusa airport, from where they will be boarded on an IOM flight headed to Bergamo. 1,136 migrants remain at the center. But the data is constantly evolving.
Rescued 59 people on two small boats in Lampedusa
There were two landings, with a total of 59 migrants, which took place on the Favarolo pier in Lampedusa. The soldiers of the V801 patrol boat of the financial police stopped the small boats, which left from Kerkennah in Tunisia. On board the first there were 31 people, including 5 women and 13 minors; on the second, 29 Tunisians.
“No to tent cities and stop landings”, assembly in Lampedusa
Another citizen meeting has been called for tomorrow afternoon, in Piazza Della Libertà, near the Lampedusa town hall. “The no to the construction of the tent city in Capo Ponente and the no to any structure linked to the management of migrants or military activities will be reiterated – said Giacomo Sferlazzo, spokesperson for the Mediterranean Pelagie movement – We continue to ask that migrants be brought directly to the mainland . We will not accept compensation or barter.”
Pianted calls himself mayor of Porto Empedocle
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi telephoned, early in the morning, the mayor of Porto Empedocle Calogero Martello to show him the closeness of the government and above all the awareness that Porto Empedocle, like Lampedusa, is heavily affected by the migratory phenomenon and suffers backlash.
The phone call from the head of the Interior Ministry was made after the mayor had blurted out yesterday about the unmanageable phenomenon and the fears of his fellow citizens. This morning, Piantedosi reassured the mayor regarding the conclusion of the works for the creation of the hotspot in the final area of the port. A center that will be reachable, along internal routes, by migrants transferred from Lampedusa, who will not be seen by the population.
Barelli, “Question to be addressed by involving everyone”
“Forza Italia has always maintained that the migrant problem must be addressed by Europe in solidarity. Antonio Tajani did well to also raise the problem at the UN because only with the involvement of all the major global players, including the United States, will it be possible to plan interventions that will curb the dramatically growing phenomenon of immigration from the African continent”. The president of Forza Italia deputies, Paolo Barelli, said this on Tg1.
Strong “It is necessary to find lasting solutions”
“In Italy, especially in Lampedusa, there is now a phenomenon that shows us how necessary it is to find lasting solutions” on the migration phenomenon. And “we must not see immigration as a burden, but we must manage it together and transform migratory flows into opportunities, knowing that many migrants have enormous potential as students, as workers and as individuals”. This was stated by Oliviero Forti, head of Migration Policies and International Protection of Caritas Italiana, speaking today at the Caritas Internationalis online conference on
“Lasting solutions for migrants and refugees”, virtual event on the occasion of the 109th World Migrant and Refugee Day. According to Forti, “promoting legal paths is the best and most concrete way to fight human trafficking and invest in community engagement in the right way to build solidarity, strengthen a culture of human rights and promote sustainable migration management programs” .
Forti brought the Italian example of the “humanitarian corridors” which, in addition to Caritas, also involves other NGOs and expressions of civil society, for the legal entry of refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and which he defined “one of the main ways to fight human trafficking and to prevent people from dying during the journey”. Added to these are also the “work corridors” and the “university corridors”, for the entry of people with a destination both for employment and for study experiences.
According to Oliviero Forti, “there are some legal and safe routes which, however, are not used adequately by countries. The widespread sovereignist narrative prevalent in public opinion in many countries also contributes to reducing the opportunities to implement safe and legal paths. And let’s see what happens for example in Italy, but also in other European countries.” “Due to this imbalance between the need for protection and the real possibilities of reaching a safe country legally, migrants and refugees end up in the hands of traffickers or stranded in countries of first asylum awaiting a lasting solution,” he added. .
The representative of Caritas Italiana recalled that “at the end of 2022 there were 108 million displaced people in the world due to persecution, conflicts, violence, human rights violations or events that seriously disturb public order. It is clear to all of us that current policies are unable to manage this phenomenon and this challenge. The greatest need for protection is concentrated in the countries of first asylum on the African continent.”
As regards the countries of origin, “let’s think of the Syrians, who represent the population with the highest global need for resettlement, and then there are the refugees from Afghanistan, who are in second place in resettlement needs at a global level”. “Despite this immense need for protection – concluded Forti -, only 114 thousand people have been resettled, with or without UNHCR assistance. It is clear that the routes to enter the destination countries are very few and often take a long time. And let’s not forget that refugees often need to travel very long distances to reach a safe country.”
Silp Cgil, “Eighteen months in the CPR? Let’s create social bombs”
“The length of stay in the CPRs already represents a problem today, the idea of reaching 18 months not only risks being ineffective with respect to the objectives that the government has set itself, but above all it risks generating new social tensions and serious problems of order public”. Pietro Colapietro, general secretary of the Silp Cgil police union, stated this to ANSA, commenting on the Government’s plan to increase the number of centers and the detention time for migrants.
“The detention centers for repatriations – explains Colapietro – are anomalous detention facilities. In the 9 structures that exist today, which are collapsing, there are already clashes, escape attempts, management problems with the consequence that policemen and migrants often put their own safety at risk. All this happens with the current limit of 6 months and with the historical inability to sign agreements with the countries of origin. Imagine if the permanence times are extended to 18 months. We are creating real social bombs.”
“Not only. If as has been announced – adds the trade unionist – other CPRs will be created, which men and which means will they have at their disposal given that already today in the main Italian cities the police and carabinieri are suffering from staff shortages? The government’s promises on hiring are waste paper because no resources have been provided for extraordinary hiring. Ordinary ones do not compensate for retirements. How do we solve it?”.
“It is hardly necessary to remember – continues the general secretary of the Silp Cgil – that to manage a CPR that hosts 150/200 people, at least 20 people per shift are needed who are found among the various police forces, already today stripping the offices on the territory. Therefore, to manage the four daily shifts plus dismantling, around a hundred operators are needed, including policemen, carabinieri, financiers and soldiers. All this excluding those who manage administrative procedures and repatriations. If we open new CPRs, where do we recover all these personnel?”.
“We pay the price,” concludes Colapietro, “of a security and demagogic management of security, with the immigration offices collapsing, without new resources for hiring or for the renewal of the employment contract of the uniforms, with delays in the payment of overtime even up to at 18 months. So we don’t go anywhere and above all we don’t give citizens security.”
Claudio Baglioni, “Lampedusa needed to intervene 25-30 years ago”
“If we had put our hands and thoughts in Lampedusa 25-30 years ago, perhaps we wouldn’t have gotten to this.” For ten years, between 2003 and 2012 with the O’ Scià festival, Claudio Baglioni was personally involved on the Sicilian island to raise awareness of the problem of migrants which has once again exploded in all its severity in recent weeks.
“It’s a 30-year history, but we can’t change the geography. Now it’s cabbage for everyone. We just need to equip ourselves to be able to find a solution, without these topics once again becoming a matter for electoral purposes, because otherwise we won’t come out of them – continues the singer-songwriter, after the dress rehearsal of his new live show aTUTTOCUORE, which debuts on September 21st at Central Stadium of the Foro Italico in Rome -. This is an issue that affects everyone, but no one has ever implemented a real solution.”
O’ Scià was an appointment that received recognition and applause even outside national borders, but a bit of bitterness shines through Baglioni’s words. “With that review we tried to tell a distant public opinion that those things already happened twenty years ago. But in the end I felt defeated: the contributions had to be made every year and that was a bit of a disappointment because we thought we had built something different and important, which went beyond the bowls tournament with which we were competing for the same funds, I felt defeated because nothing changed. And in the world there is not only Lampedusa because people move in search of better situations for their lives. We cannot condemn those who do it and we cannot even condemn those who can no longer take it. Like war: only the powerful win, the idiotic people just have to try to avoid the cannonball”, comments the artist sadly.
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