TRIESTE
Police punish those who help migrants of the Balkan route on the street
The police raided the home of Gian Andrea Franchi and Lorena Fornasir who have been sensitive for years to the sufferings and injustices of migrants: they offer shoes, sleeping bags, jackets and other clothing and some food, hot milk, sweets, sandwiches…. together with sociability, meeting, looks in the eyes. Even more: respect, dignity to human beings legally and socially non-existent.
"Lorena, 68, a psychotherapist, and her husband Gian Andrea, 84, a retired philosophy professor who live in Trieste, are two activists who since 2015 have set up a small medical garrison outside Trieste Station to offer first aid to the young people who miraculously crossed the border into Croatia but bore the marks of torture on their bodies. Lorena and Gian Andrea are two special human beings. They have been to Bosnia 20 times (the last one a few weeks ago). They load the car with medicine, sleeping bags and shoes”.
Images from the travels of Lorena and Andrea in Bosnia/ Photo Avvenire
... At the beginning they acted as individuals, then they established themselves as a voluntary association: Linea d'Ombra odv. Together with other volunteers, every afternoon, they first offer assistance to the boys who miraculously cross the border into Croatia but who bear the signs of torture on their bodies, they medicate their feet."
The Washing of Feet
This is how Gian Andrea Franchi tells it
"A group of about ten women and a few men meet every Thursday and Saturday in the square in front of Trieste station to take care of the feet of Afghan, Pakistani, Iraqi, Moroccan, Tunisian... migrants from Bosnia. They offer them shoes, sleeping bags, a bit of food, a lot of attention and many looks. It is their way to rebel: the conflict with the institutions will be inevitable. It is an extremely concrete but strongly symbolic gesture..."
They are all with badly shod feet, swollen, with blisters, small wounds that very easily become infected and even more serious wounds.
The new internal header of “Comune” dedicated to migration and the affirmation of freedom of movement. Because movements, desires, affirmations of dignity and rebellions do not have passports or borders.
