Newsletter BorderlineSicilia – July 2018
- Call out by civil society against racism
- Real life is the only antidote to propaganda
- The government’s new direction and its consequences
CALL OUT BY CIVIL SOCIETY AGAINST RACISM
Borderline Sicilia and many other groups have come together to send an appeal against the racist attacks that are increasingly frequent in Palermo and across Italy. We condemn the anti-loitering regulations established by the Mayor of Catania, simply the latest example of a sharpening attack on vulnerable persons, masked under a pretext of maintaining law and order.
This outcry has been amplified by the Waldesian and Bapstist evangelical churches of Catania, who recall the number of people who have died in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2018, now risen to 1,400. The churches call for us to not fall prey to easy slogans and simplifications that operate on the basis of false assumptions, enacting a politics of rejection in Italy and throughout Europe.
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REAL LIFE IS THE ONLY ANTIDOTE TO PROPAGANDA
While politics seems to increasingly happen online, the dominant rhetoric singles out the “other” as a scapegoat for all evils, accompanied by the continuing criminalisation of groups and individuals that oppose the way things are going.
In the era of communication by tweet, it seems even more difficult to find space for deeper and more accurate analysis of the state of affairs. The virtual world muddle the borders between truth and lies, creating fertile ground for fake news and the incitement to racial hatred. Yet in the real world, despite the closure of the ports, the landings continue to take place, and many of the new arrivals are joining the factory of irregularity that makes subject easy to exploit, to the convenience of the country’s economic needs.
In the meantime, in Brussells, the European parliament has taken side with the NGOs, recognising the value in their resuce operations and underlining the priority of providing help.
Life in the real world continues, and provides us examples of courage and integration, such as the case of Stephan.
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THE GOVERNMENT’S NEW DIRECTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
One of the targets of the new government is the humanitarian protection, the object of two ministerial notes aiming to restrict the its recognition, while awaiting for a legislative intervention that could eliminate the humanitarian protection from our law books. The notes undermine the commissions’ independence, while the worsening situation of the hostels in Italy seems to be, by now, forgotten.
The closure of the ports continues to cause incidents, such as that of the 40 migrants recovered in the Maltese SAR zone, transferred to the Tunisian SAR zone, blocked in a long and dangerous limbo due to Malta, Italy and Tunisia’s refusal to allow a landing in their own ports. Due to the current difficulties in landing in an Italian port and in the context of the horrendous accusations by government representative regarding the veracity of the corpses and survivors recovered at sea after the July 16th shipwreck, the Open Arms decided to head towards the Spanish coats. Italy is no longer a safe place for asylum seekers and those who rescue them.http://localhost:81/newborden/our-constitution-buried-in-depths-of-the-mediterranean/
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Project “OpenEurope” – Oxfam Italia, Diaconia Valdese, Borderline Sicilia Onlus
Translation by Richard Braude
