Reception is not an easy challenge. On the one hand there are those fleeing war, hunger and poverty. On the other hand, there are the municipalities called to hospitality. The balance, and the diatribes of these days in Piedmont as elsewhere tell it, is complex. About four thousand people have arrived in Turin and its province in the last month. The precise figure is 3970, nine hundred more than in June last year.
Hundreds of men, women, children every thirty-six hours. One hundred and fifty just the other day. Mostly North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Most are Tunisian. Or Sudan, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria. “The landings are a reflection of the current geopolitical situation”. This was underlined by the deputy prefect vicar Michele Lastella. One reference among many is the instability of Tunisia.
«The reception system is based on the availability of real estate and cooperatives. 40% of migrants are hosted in Turin, the others in the various provinces based on the resident population», explains the deputy prefect Lastella. He knows well that behind those numbers to manage there are names and surnames with a lot of suffering. Faces looking for a future elsewhere, a place to stay, to find work. Behind them, risking their lives, they left rubble and no hope. Here is the place to build your future.
Migrants, the mayors’ revolt: “Unloaded like parcels in town halls”
irene fame
July 16, 2023
For this reason, the majority of the 334 extraordinary reception centres, distributed in 64 municipalities between Turin and the province, have twenty or thirty places. The largest, two in the city, the Red Cross Center in Settimo, one in Alpignano, number around a hundred. The idea is that small businesses facilitate integration. There are the structures of the diocese and then those that private individuals lease to cooperatives which in turn participate in tender procedures or expressions of interest of the prefecture. Several municipalities are complaining. “Warn too late,” they say. Even if from the prefecture they explain how the note from the Ministry arrives the day before the departure of the migrants from Lampedusa. “There are no real integration projects,” accuse other mayors.
The Valle di Susa logistics hub in Bussoleno is a symbol of welcome on the border that many migrants try to cross to reach France, a point of reference for small and large emergencies. The redevelopment will be financed with funds from the Pnrr, a 4 million euro intervention which will allow the Red Cross and the other associations operating within it (Caritas, Aib, Alpine Rescue and Civil Protection) to enjoy a safer and functional thanks to seismic upgrading works, energy efficiency and plant engineering. It has been clear to everyone for some time now that these are necessary works, especially if we consider that the structure, now mainly intended for the reception of migrants, was born from the conversion of a school from the 70s that had remained unattended for years and at the mercy of vandals . «The works should start in the autumn and continue for two and a half years. They will be carried out in blocks, in order to guarantee the continuity of the various activities», explains Michele Belmondo, emergency manager of the Susa Red Cross. To date, in Bussoleno, they host about a hundred people. «We record an even more intense turnover of arrivals and departures than in the past. In addition to the MigrAlp project which for some time has seen us involved in rescuing and assisting those who are rejected every day at the border, since 31 July last year we have also been welcoming migrants from the landings in Lampedusa to the logistics hub”.
The last, about twenty, arrived last night.
