Prison ships in the decadent City

Today, the blinded doors are guarded day and night by 500 men to monitor the three "floating prisons" to house (or better 'cram' like cattle) up to 700 men, mostly Tunisians who were deported from Lampedusa in 48 hours. On the protection of the rights of the socially vulnerable in Italy we do every day 3 to 4 steps back, despite the EU legislation requirements to receive and evaluate applications for asylum, any 'return' should only happen after careful analysis of the situations of individuals and their families.

The revolt that broke out three days ago in Lampedusa, the CPA (Center for initial reception, ed) Imbriacola of the district, as we have said through the pages of this newspaper was announced and was beautiful, the classic self-fulfilling prophecy. The authors of the revolt had announced it themselves to the managers, in particular to protest against the attitude of the Italian government. Unlike in Germany or France in our country can never express a consistent and respectful of rights, to clarify the present and future migrants 'here' with a clear language and the help of cultural mediators never used on a permanent basis. The position of migrants is always difficult because there is fluid in the aggregate of the carts that come (from Libya or Tunisia) an intricate mixture of different situations. There are stories of those who try almost normal way of seeking their fortune in Europe and stories of escape from really dangerous and desperate situations.

With the prison-ships blocked at the port a strange symbiosis between migrants' rights and rights of the citizens of Palermo is created: the latter are abandoned for years by the administration, faced with myriad problems big and small, from hygiene, environmental issuese, unemployment, indifference to young graduates, business of illegal building (housing speculation) the disastrous condition of the schools. When faced with the spectacle of grim prison-ships of Palermo would do well to ask why this cumbersome presence that is at odds with their own history.

The migrants and the city does not deserve the horror shown by the state with the three prison ships concealed by illegal documents on stamped paper, penciled by solutions, inability to tackle structural problems in the place where they forced us to become cynical, to forget what was once the sea and what was our hospitality.

Italian original published by :: medeu.it on 23. Sep 2011.