It has taken me a few days to get back to write on the blog. I needed time to digest some of the comments that followed the publication of an excellent piece of journalism, published by L’Espresso in Italy, regarding the terrible conditions in which immigrants are kept in the temporary detention centre in Lampedusa.
The journalist Fabrizio Gatti, pretended to be an immigrant who just landed in Lampedusa. He lived for a week in the camp until they sent him to Sicily and let him go with a temporary five days permit that should have given him enough time to leave Italy but is used by many to disappear in the world of illegal immigration. Gatti has written an article describing the whole experience.

He found total chaos. The place is far too small to accommodate the number of immigrants who get usually there. The toilets were in tragic conditions giving no privacy and with excrement all over the place. The small kind of mattresses that some people managed to get were dirty and, in some cases, infested with insects. The food was scarce; he understood immediately that a kind of egg and bread crumbs frittata covered for the non existing meat cotoletta that the state is probably paying for, etc…

Once again, Italy reacts to immigration on an emergency basis. Lampedusa has received large numbers of immigrants for many years now and the local authorities on the island have often complained about the inadequate structures in place. Boat after boat, the hundreds of immigrants who have survived the journey are dealt with as an emergency in those conditions.

Previous cases have already warned that checks are required to make sure that government funding are really used to buy proper food and equipment, keep the place clean, etc…but it seems impossible to learn from the past.
An example for the food is the refugee camp set up in Comiso for the Kosovar refugees in 1999 where, initially, the canteen was providing the refugees with decent food, which later became really scarce and dropped in quality. This was partly due to the increasing number of people in the camp, but also to the dubious management of supplies which led the cooperative responsible for the catering to be placed under investigation for fraud.

But perhaps what is more shocking in Gatti’s account is the behaviour of some of the police and carabinieri in the centre. Gatti makes a clear distinction in his article between those who work really hard in this chronic emergency situation and do their best, and those who manage to ruin it all by abusing the immigrants, slapping them for fun, kicking them, forcing them to watch pornographic images, making fan of their conditions and imposing inhumane routines which force them to sit under the sun for hours without going to the toilet.

Just a few thoughts:

Italy cannot keep dealing with this phenomenon on such terms, as a total unexpected emergency. The “emergency strategy” justifies many problems in the system and the general disorganisation, can offer better ways for frauds to be covered for and, finally, works as a natural filter so that Europe can keep getting the so much needed illegal immigrants while showing to be tough and able to deter some of them.

The rest of Europe cannot go on ignoring this and letting Italy do the “dirty� job.

National and European parliamentary committees visiting these places need not to give any warnings and pre-set appointments that give people responsible for the centres enough time to clean, buy the real meat, behave kindly with the immigrants. Moreover, these centres need to be open to the press, to NGOs and other concerned citizens who want to monitor and help.

On a final note, Gatti pointed out that many people in the centre had already a job to go to in Italy or elsewhere in Europe or relatives waiting for them. They are almost resigned to the fact that the price to pay, if they manage to survive during the trip on the boat, is a week of hell in one of the pearls of the Mediterranean Sea, a paridise for tourists from all over the world.

You can find the Fabrizio Gatti’s article on the Carta website if you want to read it in Italian.