Protests Against Detention and Security Act

A few days ago Berlusconis government released a so called Security Act (pacchetto sicuezza). From now on the unauthorized stay on italian ground is a crime. People caught can be inprisoned for a period of up to six months under worst conditions. On July 9, more than 400 people were demonstrating in front of such a "Lager", the Identification and Expulsion Center (CIE) in Ponte Galeria, Rome.

Call

In the days of the g8 summit we will be outside the walls of Ponte Galeria, while the so-called "great eight" will be hiding inside a military base to discuss about crises.
The governments of the world talk in favour of a free circulation of goods and capital, expecting to stop and control the flow of migration. At the same time the only ways that people have to move are those related to the tourist industry or labour exploitation.
Deportations, uncontrolled detentions and security politics characterised by militarization, seem to be the answer of the industrialised countries to the financial and social crisis that they in great part have created themselves.
A few days ago the so called "security act" (pacchetto sicuezza) was approved. Because of this law the territory of the Italian state will be characterised as an open air laboratory of permanent repression even more than before. The unauthorised entrance or staying on the Italian territory is becoming a crime. The maximum detention period inside the CIE is extended from 2 to 6 months. The racist squads are being legalised. This is just to mention a few of the repressive norms that are included in the new law. Meanwhile the inmates of the CIE in Milan, Bologna and Gradisca d'Isonzo are already protesting with an hunger strike.

We want to return to Ponte Galeria because behind the walls of the CIE there are people who have been arrested e.g. on their way home after a long day of underpaid labour, while standing in line to renew their residence permit or simply while waiting for a friend at a bus stop.
Whoever protests against the brutal living conditions imposed by these "democratic" concentration camps (Overcrowding, lack of hygiene, mind-bending medicines as instruments of mass sedation, lack of water and negation of any assistance) undergoes physical violence and intimidation. Beating-up and abuse from the police and the Red Cross (who manages the CIE at Ponte Galeria) are daily routine. The last three months two dead causalities have been registered: Salah Soudaini, dead after the sanitary staff refused to provide him with medical assistance (and after undergoing a police beating, according to the testimony of other inmates), and Nabruka Mimuni, who had been in Italy for 30 years and who repeatedly threatened to commit suicide if she was going to be repatriated, was left at the mercy of her destiny.

It is unthinkable that people who have decided to leave the country of their origin, often risking their life in an attempt to construct a better future or who flea from an oppressive situation, find themselves locked away in a concentration camp of the state.

Clandestinity is nothing but a condition imposed by racist and xenophobic politics based on exploitation and continuous blackmailing. We do not categorise ourselves in Italians or foreigners, but think of ourselves as people from the world.

Let's bring our creativity, our anger and our strength in front of those walls. Let's make it possible for the people who are locked up to hear the solidarity of all those, which do not want to tolerate anymore the existence of these concentration camps. Nor do we want to tolerate the tortures and the state murders that the authorities are hiding from us.
We will meet at the car park of the train stop "Fiera di Roma" where the train to Fiumicino Airport stops (the corner between Via Gaetano Rolli Lorenzini and Via Cesare Chiodi). Meeting point at Ostiense station at 16.00 in order to take the train all together.