Let us not leave them in the street. Let us make concrete gestures of integration. No to the inhuman EU pact on the reception of migrants.

Fortress Europe is barricading itself more and more against migrants, and this favours increasingly inhuman measures also on the part of Italy.  The EU Migration and Asylum Pact signed at the end of December will cause further waves of suffering at the borders, to which the Italian government’s Memorandum of Understanding with Tirana for the transfer to Albania of migrants rescued on barges in the Mediterranean will certainly contribute. Yesterday the protocol received the OK from our Chamber of Deputies despite the fact that ratification is currently suspended in Albania, waiting for the Albanian Constitutional Court to rule on its legitimacy (Source: integrazionemigranti.gov.it/). “Instead of prioritising solidarity through relocations,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, “states will simply pay to reinforce external borders, or fund countries outside the EU”.

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“The agreement reached by the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on a set of legislative proposals will reform the European Union’s migration and asylum policy through a series of regulations governing how states will respond to people arriving in Europe and will lead to a reduction in the rights of migrants“
(Source:www.amnesty.it).

Source: www.avvenire.it

The outcome of the negotiations that culminated in the EU Pact legitimises the status quo at the EU’s external borders, where violence and rejections are daily practices, say the NGOs Sea Watch, Sea Eye, Maldusa, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Open Arms, Resq People Saving People, AlarmPhone, Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario and Sos Humanity in a joint statement. «The failed Dublin system will be maintained and instead the isolation of refugees and asylum seekers will continue, keeping them in remote camps. More and more people will try to escape by sea, choosing increasingly dangerous routes» (Source: avvenire.it/attualita/pagine/patto-ue-accordo).

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«Overcoming mistrust, helping and giving hope to those who have arrived in Italy from distant lands to find a home, a job and to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Solidarity initiatives concern not only big cities, but also small towns, as Daniela Chiozza, Quinto Dalmasso, Mauro Bolla and Marisa Bellino demonstrate. In recent years, in Robilante in the province of Cuneo, they have made a rich journey: a journey through the difficult search for a roof, challenges to make different concepts of ‘home’ coexist, and proposals to present to local administrators and private agencies… together we have faced many episodes of discrimination. Even with regular employment contracts, skin colour meant that all doors were closed. When it became too humiliating, even for us, we started to get involved: we bought housing in Robilante, and rented it out to them».

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«Quinto Dalmasso also provided an annexe in Borgo San Dalmazzo. Other houses were found through personal contacts. “But after the difficulties in the search began those related to the management of the houses,” the four volunteers explain, “how to pay the rent, utility bills, taxes, condominium expenses, the use of cleaning products, the maintenance of the space. We realised that they needed constant accompaniment, you have to be there, to follow them. We realised how different the concept of inhabiting a space is, and things change again when the family unit is created. Life in the countries they come from happens outside and the house is secondary: it is a roof den, but it does not have the economic and emotional value as it does for us. For many of them it just means having a shelter, while for us it is often an economic investment and a core of affective life. This is also one of the reasons why people prefer not to rent to foreigners. Yes, but it cannot be a solution’.  (Source: la stampa.it).