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At present I am in Lampedusa, a tiny rock of 20,2 km² and inhabited by 6000 people in the Mediterranean. The geographical position of the place -between Tunisia and Libya- determines the present socio-political conditions in which we are living. Since the end of February, we have assisted to a massive movement of people who depart from the African coast directed to Europe to escape from Tunisia and Libya, and gain a better life style here. Landings have always been part of the story of Lampedusa, but what we are witnessing now is something ‘I do not want to tell my sons one day’ quoting a local. It has been roughly calculated that 12000 migrants have already stopped here, and at the moment there are 5000 migrants.

A few years ago the Italian government set an Identification and Expulsion Centre (CIE), where migrants used to stay 48hrs and then transferred to other centers in Italy, inventing the so called ‘Lapedusa model’. This immediate transfer was dictated by a simple reason: the fragile economy of the place is based on tourism. The CIE may contain 800 people, but three weeks ago there were at least 3000 people living in awful conditions.The number of migrants landing here escalated since then, until the point of being overcrowded. Today the migrants arriving in Lampedusa are located in the mooring area, wharf, museum, and church dormitory. The main problem is the mooring and wharf area, as there is a simple structure which -including the porch- can shelter 100 people. All the rest of the migrants, who can not get in the structure, are sleeping in tents built with plastic, cardboards, or blankets on the slope of the hill next to the mooring, or under the lorries parked there.

Imagine a slum, without electricity, services, toilets…this is the place where refugees stay the first week they are in Lampedusa. Once some 600 people are transferred from the CIE of Lampedusa to other similar places in Italy, the migrants of the mooring replace them, and newcomers take the tends left empty by their ‘colleagues’.

Last week we assisted to the last blackmail of the government. The last palliative to sort out and manage the situation is to set up a camp with tents nearby the ex NATO area. Sunday the local population occupied the main port with the attempt to stop the unloading of the container of the tents. They allowed to pass goods, such as fish, to be loaded into the boat directed to Italy. Once the operation finished, the government blackmailed the local authority and the population: we won’t bring the fish to Italy, if we won’t be able to unload the container. Although the local council -chaired by the right party Lega Nord part of Berlusconi coalition- agreed with the Minister of the Interior, Maroni (Lega Nortd) that the camp won’t be set up, they had to surrender. At 7pm lorries moved the containers outside the mooring area. It is now clear that there is a conflict within the same party, or better between members of the same government, ‘seasoned’ by a racist feeling. Maroni is supporting the regions where the Lega Nord is strong, such as Veneto, Lombardia and Liguria. All these regional councils have already expressed their opinion on regard: not in my back yard. Thus Maroni, and the government, is well intentioned to leave the situation as it is.

Lampedusa is a island in the Mediterranean managed by Lega Nord, where the government is trying to confine the problem, creating an open sky refugee camp. The Italian government is ignoring the conditions in which migrants and locals are living. The decay and sanitary condition are unbelievable, as no one is cleaning the areas where migrants are accomodated, for example it’s been calculated that in the CIE every 300 people there is a toilet. And this is just the tip of the ice berg. Talking to some Tunisian guys I discovered their food contains drugs to quieten them. They sleep after every meal for hours, waking up with strong head aches. The top has been reached yesterday when the meal for the migrants of the mooring area has been delivered by the lorry which collects rubbish. The company said they washed and lined it to preserve the food, but the migrants refused to eat it and run on the hill.

The police and the army sent on the island are not smoothing the difficult situation in which we are all in. Last week I have been detained because I was changing some Dinars in Euro, as it’s consider a crime. The consequence is evident: when these people finish the little amount of euro they came here with, they beg for. Further, the law imposes to present a document similar to the NIN to get the access to public internet cafes, and considering the migrants are all without it, they end up spending lot of money on public telephone cards. We supported the facebook driven revolution, and now we are trying to stop it.

However, yesterday Maroni visited Tunisia and signed an agreement with the government worth €150mln. The Tunisian government will patrol the shore to avoid further departures, but everyone knows this is a political move to gain votes and sympathy. Last minute news: Frattini, the Minister of the Foreign Affairs proposed to pay €1500 per person to be sent back and develop their own business.

As you may know, the media are controlled mainly by the Berlusconi’s family. The result is obvious: they are using and abusing the situation in order to gain the political conflict in the parliament. The reality is twisted depicting a bucolic situation on the island. Even extra parliament groups are fueling this situation: today at 7.30pm the leader of the extreme right party Forza Nuova, Mr Fiore will chair a meeting with members of the same group. They are all coming from the continent just for this event.

It is a pity the government does not consider the situation as it is: drastic…but what can we expect from Berlusconi’s coalition, a corrupted and mafioso system?

They are coming from the sea

At 3.30pm I receive a text from a colleague about a boat full of Tunisian sighted  by the Guarda Costiera, or costal guard, and the agency Frontex at 50 km from the coast. I go down to the port where there are already journalists and photographers waiting for the miracle: a boat full of Northern Africans appear behind the rocks delimiting the bay. After forty minutes waiting, we get the signal we are close to have our miracle: a small boat of the Guardia Costiera leaves the port in direction south-west, reappearing just a fifteen minutes later escorting a bigger boat with immigrants on board, and a medium size one with a cameraman.

Medics and paramedics are waiting at the mooring the refugees to give medical assistance, especially to those who are in hypothermia. I get closer to the gate of the mooring, until the point I trespass  it with the rest of the journalists  outside the entrance. I reach the group of Tunisian landed in Lampedusa. Twenty two young men and a woman, who is going to feed  the small group of four, already detained in the centre. She is immediately wrapped in a thermal blanket and pushed in the ambulance together with two men in her same conditions.

The rest of the crew is invited to walk towards the gate from which I went through. There is a bus waiting for them directed to the immigration center , where they will probably stay for a while. I look at them walking in a row, and queuing to get on the bus. Their faces are carved by the wind, and the wrinkles full of sea salt. They look exhausted, but relieved like a marathoner after the competition. Smiling and waiving hands like winners, or the survivals of the Titanic.

The majority of the boats reaching this side of the Mediterranean are old and in bad condition. They crash and sink  because the number of people on board is higher than the actual capacity.  It is a dangerous trip which can cost more than the €2000 required for the ticket. The guys I spook to told me they did not have water or food with them

Tunisian at the mooring while assisted by International agency workers in Lampedusa

and they were really scared to the point someone thought they were all going to die. In 2 or 3 days you could reach Lampedusa, but most of them want to go to France, where their relatives live. They want normality, independence, and dignity.

So far…not so good

Lampedusa looks a paradise from the deck where I am standing. I get off the ferry and Emanuele welcomes me. The main road is almost desert while Emanuele drives me through: just a few passers by and small isolated groups of young Tunisians with shopping bags.

Emanuele updates me about the situation…many boats, and many more people on them , landed during the past few weeks…he shows me the road to the detention centre on a map  (CPT in Italian) and I leave with the idea to go there. Young African guys sit at a cafe on the road to the centre, drinking soft drinks, coffee and smiling at me. I remember Emanuele told me the police is having a lot of problems because they can not stop the refugees from leaving the place where they are detained. The centre is small and overcrowded, and the fence is not enough to isolate immigrants. The uphill road, which leads to the prison faces south west and at 2.30pm -lunch time- is quiet and desert, only a few vans of the local co-operative managing the detention centre

run up and down the hill. After 500m I notice the road is blocked: a big police van is  parked right in the middle, stopping and asking for documents. At the check point I can not deny I am waiting to receive mine…obviously they do not let me go through., and the only thing left is to hoping to be able to get in tomorrow.
I walk back towards the port of Lampedusa. A car coming from the direction of the detention centre pulls off 100m in front of me. A man aged 50 offers me a lift, I jump up, and I start to make him questions. He works in the canteen of centre and he is very keen on talking. He tells me two weeks ago there were 3000 people, some of them have been flown out to other detention centers, probably Puglia or Sicily, so now the detainees are around 1400. He describes the situation as chaotic. The number of police is limited, and it will probably be better when the army will come to the island in a couple of days. He says, it is impossible to 

The door of Lampedusa...door of Europe

keep so many human beings in such a small place, there is not enough room for all of them,and the co-operative needs more staff as in the kitchen there are just 4 cookers.  I ask him about the presence of women in the centre, but he does not remember any of them. He carries on with his story; he was a fisherman, but since the activity is no longer remunerative, he left the sea and got employed in the co-operative running the centre. Years of intensive fishing dissipated  the  reserve leaving many people without any other solution than changing job or leaving the island.

At the end of the day business is business, and immigration is part of it. However people here are friendly and try to cope with the situation, though it is difficult because political parties are exacerbating the relationship between locals, police and immigrants.