Trieste and naval blockade
"We want to make security a distinctive feature of this executive and stop illegal departures, finally breaking the trafficking of human beings in the Mediterranean".
That to solve the problem of migrants it’s enough to build an imaginary barrier a few nautical miles from the Italian coast is a rather abstract and simplistic idea. It would do little if not to increase the general tension for a bit of everyone and I think, or rather I hope, this is clear. The question of the naval blockade really seems to me to be yet another attempt to divert the migrant issue by reducing it to a small Africa-Italy corridor, the same deficiency that in the collective imagination sees migrants arriving only by sea, but this is not the case. I will repeat myself with respect to the previous posts but it’s essential to understand that the migration routes are many and are very different from each other. We tend to get up from the sofa when we hear the news of a few hundred people landed in Lampedusa but we forget, or worse we ignore, that this is only a small part of what concerns the issue of migrants in Europe (and in the world) .
(yes, I took a color photo)
In August I went to Trieste which is one, if not the main one, of the reference points for those arriving in Europe via the Balkan Route. For those who don’t know what it is, summing up to a minimum, it’s the way that leads to Europe starting from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, passing for example through Northern Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Obviously there is no real pre-established path, the variants and methods of the Route are varied but united by common factors such as difficult borders to cross, violence by the police or by those who manage the illegal trafficking of human beings and refugee camps on average overcrowded. Leaving aside, for the moment, what happens along the entire route, it’s really necessary to know that only in Trieste an average of 80 to 100 people arrive every day. For some reason, however, the Balkan Route often ends up in the credits in the news, as if mentioning it were enough to be able to lift the burden of having to find a solution.
Here, more than in any of the other places I have tried to document, I began to feel a little discouraged.
Throughout the year, every evening, for example, volunteers from the "Linea d’Ombra" association serve in Piazza Della Libertà, in front of the train station. They medicate those who arrive, often in very questionable health conditions including scabies, ingrown nails or even broken bones. All direct consequences of the Balkan Route. A day-time center was recently opened where you can receive medical and legal assistance, managed by the ICS association. The association deals with the protection of asylum seekers, refugees and persons with temporary or subsidiary protection present in the area and organizes reception and integration services. The center was recently opened to try to respond to the many requests that arrive every day, but despite their enormous commitment, in this as in all other initiatives, it’s difficult to meet the demand. There are several associations and voluntary organizations that deal with hospitality and all find it difficult to face the amount of work necessary to cope with the emergency that this year more than ever doesn’t seem to want to stop with the arrival of 'winter.
The example that I think is more convenient to use in order to understand the situation is that of refugee camps: not far from the city, in fact, there are two which, like the vast majority of the structures used for initial reception, are overcrowded, and the reason of this overcrowding, in these specific cases but not only, is due to the too long timing of the bureaucracy which too often requires several months to assess the situation of each individual person.
And this slowdown does nothing but constantly worsen the reception and/or repatriation system, when necessary.
The solution to all this, however, would be there, it’s certainly inconvenient and understandably difficult to accept when what seem to be the only priorities are other, but there is: it’s necessary to invest more in hospitality and integration, invest in research and above all on information about the reasons that lead to undertake any migratory route and how these take place.
It’s essential to create channels of dialogue that at least allow us to understand the different situations of those in the world who have not had our thick chances and decide to leave in search of some more opportunities. And the political color of those who finally decide to do so doesn’t matter, but a naval blockade is certainly not a valid solution.
Problems are solved by facing them, not bypassing them, otherwise they will continue to recur, always finding us unprepared and we can no longer afford it.
