The tragedy of the young Eritrean Crotone: an indictment against Italy

Emilio Drudi

It 'was a death foretold. The death of a young man fled war and persecution in Eritrea to seek freedom and a better tomorrow in Italy. But in Italy he found instead misunderstanding, closing, hostility: the denial of their rights of every human being. So he gave up and decided to call it quits.
It 's the story of a boy of 32 years came as thousands of other desperate, on a cart full of humanity and pushed through the Strait of Sicily more by good fortune than by the force of its engines run down. Once landed, followed the bureaucratic ordeal of endless investigations, until he wound up in the refugee camp of Crotone Sant'Anna, one of the Italian reception centers more challenged by humanitarian organizations, where there have been numerous riots and where the episodes of despair and self-harm among the guests are frequent. It 'been there for months. A number among many other numbers, abandoned in a cruel limbo of uncertainty, without any form of insertion and without anyone to help him at least to hope. Then, finally, its application for international protection was examined and received: received refugee status and is able to get out. Crossed the gates, however, it has been found in front of the vacuum. A huge gap, which proved to be unbridgeable. Without a complete lack of perspective: marginalization, no job opportunities, no home (much to bear an official "homeless") if not the refuge of luck that he managed to get along with other refugees in Isola Capo Rizzuto, not far from the hostel. But a vacuum, especially in the depths of the heart, with the collapse of every confidence in the future. In a country that people like maybe he welcomes them, but then does not allow anything.
It 'the same vacuum that veils the eyes of thousands of other players desperate to escape from the South, "invisible" of which the Italian state has forgotten, leaving them on the street, at the same time which gave them residence permits . "Do not people", to have at least a roof, they are forced to occupy empty buildings and crumbling urban peripheries or popular slums and shanty towns on the outskirts of the city, along the banks of rivers, dusty dirt roads. Desperate people without rights, ignored by all but to remember it when you need to hire arms in black cheap through intermediaries and exploiters.
That guy did not leave a message to explain his act. Not a word of protest or accusation. If they have just left, choosing to die in silence, not far from the camp from which he had just come out. But his silence is deafening. Screams that killed him was just emptiness that many people have helped to create. For example, the bureaucracy ground that it is always and only a number rather than a person. The hostility of the bottom of a policy of welcoming hypocritical: expensive but ineffective and deaf to the real needs and rights of those who should be even better. People who do not indignant in the face of a tragedy so obvious and indeed often watch these desperate with annoyance, suspicion, enmity. And he will not listen to them. Killed him, in a word, the indifference in which you lose the cry for help that rises from the southern hemisphere with the voice and the stories of this guy Eritrean and thousands and thousands of young men like him, men and women .
In recent days, the Italian government has added a chapter to the story of indifference decreeing the official end of the declared crisis in the spring of 2011, when we had to cope with the exodus of a huge crowd of refugees from North Africa, ravaged by wars and revolutions. The result is the "all out" from shelters opened about two years ago. So, after they have been dispelled one billion and 300 million for parking refugees in hotels, inns, lodging houses, makeshift structures, the problem remains open. At least 13,000 migrants were thrown on the street, men, women, sometimes whole families with children, who should have followed training and placement, learn Italian, go to school, acquire the "tools" to integrate into society . And that, however, were mostly forced to "grow", unable to build any prospect of life. From beginning to end, in fact, only and always numbers. Available for all forms of exploitation. A "nuisance" that the State plan to solve a humanitarian residence permit valid for one year, a "golden handshake" of 500 euro one-off and a ticket travel. But many do not even know where to go, all the more so, since the vast majority of victims of political persecution, the way home is unthinkable. Unless you want them delivered to the prison and to death. As a result, ultimately, to further swell the mass of the "invisible" that crowd the slums and squatter buildings in the suburbs. It is no coincidence Soumahoro Aboubakar, the national coordinator of Trade Unions of immigration Base expects "day of terror for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy", in a statement to the newspaper La Stampa, said "the refusal of EUR 500 per protest against a policy that does not protect those who flee from war and misery. "
The terrible death of the boy Eritrean Crotone complaint throughout this enormous humanitarian emergency unheard. It is significant that, just taking a cue from his tragedy, Laurens Jolles, Delegate for Southern Europe of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, have asked to reflect "on repeat, in recent weeks, with dramatic gestures of desperation on the part of people seeking protection in Italy. " He added: "Thousands of people, but received international protection, living in Italy in conditions of hardship and deprivation. This is why the refugee agency hopes that the new Italian government has the power to deal with the political and moral support issues and integration, ensuring to persons fleeing war and persecution the effective enjoyment of their rights " .
Because there are never more graves of children on which to write: "Killed by indifference." But the political agenda of all parliamentary groups just elected the rights found no place. Or, at best, secondary care chapters, which do not inflame the debate and people's attention.