No more slaves…

We don’t have answers to the questions politicians ask about migrants, crime and security – simply because their questions are wrong. We think the right question is not what the State should do with asylum seekers, undocumented and “illegal” migrants. The right question is: Do we want a world that locks people up within borders, laws and prison cells? Do we want a social order that condems men and women to endless exploitation, puts them into prisons and deports them just because their documents aren’t right? Do we want a society that controls, isolates, alienates, humiliates and eventually takes every bit of humanity away from people?

Leaflet found on the activist blog Macerie and distributed at recent demonstrations in solidarity with migrants.

Translated by Italy Calling.

A long, hot, Italian Summer (Part II): winds of war in migrants’ detention centres

After last year, 2010 brought another fiery summer in Italy’s detention centres for migrants (C.I.E.), where people are detained waiting to be deported. At the beginning of the summer the length of time of detention increased to 6 months, thanks to new  “Security Package” approved by the government. Also, the Italian government has made a special agreements with Algeria and Tunisia to speed up the deportations of migrants coming from those countries. In many CIE’s Tunisians especially have been on the front line of revolts. Here follows a brief and incomplete chronicle of the past few months:

Italy pays, Libya deports and tortures

Another “success” in the “war on illegal migrants”: Against all international Conventions the Italian government keeps refusing refugees from Eritrea and deporting them back to Libya, whose detention centres are notoriously famous for the constant violations of human rights.

On 29 June dozens of Eritrean refugees detained in Misurata were asked to cooperate with the same Eritrean authorities they were fleeing from in order to provide identification. Their refusal was followed by a violent repression at the hands of the police. The refugees were then deported to Libya, their whereabouts unknown. Appeals by the UNHCR and the European Parliament have gone unheard. The Italian government keeps on supporting Gaddafi’s politics against all international conventions and despite the fact that Eritrean refugees, like all refugees, have the right to claim asylum according to the Geneva Convention.

Mobilisations against Centres of Identification and Expulsion of Migrants (C.I.E.)

Modena, 19th June

Hundreds of people took part in a demo around the Ghirlandina CIE to demand the closure of CIE’s. The demo was organised by a network of social centres, anarchist and radical groups from all over Italy.

The protest managed to paralyse for at least half day the centre of Modena, and was closely controlled by police and carabinieri forces. Chants and slogans were targeted at the racist party Northern League and, especially, at Daniele Giovanardi. Giovanardi is President of the Catholic organisation “Misericordia” (literally, “mercy”…what a laugh!), which manages the Ghirlandina CIE in Modena. In recent months many CIE’s in Italy have been at the centre of scandals and accusations of violence, beatings and, in some cases, rape against the detainees. Poor food and poor general conditions are the norm.