The misery of Italian immigrants is growing from blockades, not from viruses

Castelboltano (AP), Italy — They are known as “invisible people”: undocumented African immigrants endanger Italy before the outbreak of the coronavirus, day laborers and prostitutes. , Barely scraped by a freelance hairdresser and seasonal farmer.

Their hand-to-mouth presence, trapped for two months in a collapsing apartment in a town invaded by mobs in northern Naples, became even more volatile with no work, no food, no hope.

Italy is preparing to reopen some businesses and industries on Monday with preliminary mitigation of virus shutdowns. However, there is no indication that Castel Volturno’s “invisible things” will soon begin to work, and there is no evidence that government social nets will ease their misery.

“I need help. Help me. For my kids, my husband, I need help,” said a Nigerian cosmetologist and three mothers trapped in an overcrowded apartment. One tearful Mary Sado Ofori said. She is six months old and runs out of milk and is getting handouts from her friend.

A patchwork team of volunteers, healthcare professionals, priests, cultural mediators, and local city hall staff ensure that the “invisible” is completely unforgettable, delivering groceries daily to choked apartments for health care. Trying to serve. But what you need is more resources.

“There is an emergency in COVID emergencies, a social emergency,” said Sergio Serrano, who runs a clinic in the town. “We knew this was going to happen and we were waiting for it from the beginning.”

The virus was most heavily attacked in the northern part of Italy’s thriving industrial area. There, the first home-made case was registered on February 21, recording the majority of the infected and 27,000 deaths. Most of the government’s attention and response has focused on strengthening the medical system there to withstand the onslaught of tens of thousands of illnesses.

Castel Volturno is a completely different world. A 27-kilometer (17-mile) piece of land that runs along the sea north of Naples and is managed by the Camora Organized Crime Group. Here there are about 12 COVID cases, not among immigrants.

However, Castel Volturno has other problems that have exacerbated the COVID crisis. Castella Volturno and the surrounding area, known as “tera dei Ouchi” or the place of fire, has an unusually high rate of carcinogenesis. This is due to the illegal dumping and burning of toxic waste that has polluted air, sea and underground wells.

Here the mob is performing drug and waste disposal, and authorities have warned that the clan is preparing to take advantage of the economic misery caused by the virus shutdown.

It is here that “the invisible” has been established for many years. Many are after crossing the Mediterranean from Libya in smugglers hoping for a better life. No one has specified that number, but it is estimated to be 600,000 nationwide. Castel Volturno, a city with an official population of about 26,000, is estimated to be 10,000 to 20,000.

Men choose tomatoes, lemons, oranges and do the job of earning 25 euros (28 US dollars) a day during construction. Women sell their bodies, if they are lucky they work as freelance hairstylists, or sell trinkets and cigarette lighters on the roadside.

Men typically gather at 4 am at the roundabouts dotted with Via Domiziana’s main drugs, waiting for trucks to pick them up and transport them to farms and construction sites. But since the blockade, even the illegal bookkeeping system known as “Capolarat” has stagnated.

Immigrants who had already lived insecurely without official residence or work permits were no longer able to pay rent or buy food.

“We don’t have electricity. We don’t have water. We don’t have papers.”

To bathe, wash and flush the toilet, he and his housemate walked 300 meters (yards) with a bucket to the fountain and back.

Despair levels can be found everywhere. Since there is no electricity or refrigeration, food rots quickly and is ready to cook. These days, cooked fish and goat heads weren’t on the shelves. Outside, chicken was cooked in a makeshift stove made from old mattress springs.

A consortium of trade unions and non-profit organizations called for general pardon to legalize undocumented immigrants. Government ministers have vowed to help even the people of the black market economy survive the emergency. Given that the hands of farmers in the legal seasons of Italy are kept home in Eastern Europe because of viral travel restrictions, the proposed law would require migrant farm workers to harvest strawberries, peaches and melons. Legalize.

However, there is no proposal to make it legal, and there is fierce opposition nationwide and in the small Castel Volturno to any move to legalize the African workforce here today.

“We are talking about 20,000 illegal immigrants in a population of 26,000-which makes it equivalent to almost one foreigner for one Italian,” said the right-wing anti-immigrant Brothers of Italian Party. Said Mayor Luigi Petrera. “It seems silly to suggest something like that.”

Nonetheless, the City Hall, in cooperation with the local Centro Fernandez Refugee Center, works to feed the masses to deliver a bag of food daily to the blocked off-site immigrants.

Pastor Daniel Mosheti, a former Nairobi missionary in Kenya, is now delivering food to the poor people of his country.

“It’s different than when I was in Nairobi,” he said during a break at the grocery store. “There was poverty, but it was more human. There is something demonic here about all this, and there is something evil about how all these people are treated. “

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Nicole Winfield was donated by Rome.