15.000 migrants demonstrated in Brescia, Italy

Brescia, Oct 28, 2007 -- 15.000 migrants crossed yesterday the streets of Brescia (Italy), reclaiming the end of the new system of the resident permits renewal (Internal Ministry-Poste agreement), the repeal of the Bossi-Fini law, a permanent legalization.

A demonstration like this was not seen since years, either in Brescia or elsewhere in Italy. More than 15.000 migrants and antiracist activists took word again, crossing the streets to say that the Ministry-Poste agreement must be cancelled, the Bossi-Fini law repealed, the detention centres closed for ever. The time of promises and of compromises of the presumed "friend" governments is over. Millions of migrant men and women are forced to a condition of precariety by the link between the labour contract and the residence permit, they are considered only labour-force, more than men and women. They are a "financial resources" to improve the State incomes with the theft made by the Poste (72 euros per person to renew the residence permit) and the robbery of their social contribution, which cannot be recovered by those who choose to leave this country. Into detention centres, people is even dying, and there is not a true will to close them. The Bossi-Fini law continues to produce illegality. These are the facts: too many words have been said in the last year and a half.

The new mobilization and the new protagonism of migrants shown in Brescia is the only way to obtain a concrete and real change of the life and labour conditions of migrants. With this conviction, at the end of the demonstration, several groups of migrants and antiracist networks promoted an assembly, on November 11 in Brescia, in order to go on with the mobilization.

The migrant association and networks which promoted the demonstration in Brescia