The question of refugees represents a global and central issue facing modern society: according to data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 153,000 asylum seekers have made the crossing to Italian shores in 2015. Among them, over 16,000 were underage and 12,630 of these (8% of total arrivals) were unaccompanied, many of whom will disappear without a trace soon after arriving.
It is a “national emergency” that requires “the attention of the authorities and civil society”, according to Iside Gjergji, lecturer for the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Gjergji is also a highly regarded columnist for various magazines, including an extensive archive for her own blog which features in ‘Il Fatto Quotidiano’ where she discusses current political issues, paying particular attention to immigration and rights for refugee across the globe. The interview is in conjunction with a conference at Ca’ Foscari entitled “The condition of foreign minors seeking asylum", which will take place this week on Friday November 18th at 9:15am at the Santa Margherita Auditorium of Ca’ Foscari. At this conference, experts from Italy and around the world will examine the social, legal, medical and psychological condition of under-aged foreign asylum seekers and the possible answers of the authorities in Italy and Germany.
The correct approach for the question of refugees is one of the biggest challenges currently facing Europe. In your opinion, what is the main problem for Italy with regard to migrant children who seek refuge in our country?
There is no denying that the migration issue - in which one must include also the "question of refugees" - represents a central and disruptive issue globally (250 million immigrants out of a world population of 7.3 billion people, of which more than 65 million are refugees and asylum seekers). Just as we can’t deny that this social phenomenon is not exactly a "shot in the dark", or something unexpected and, therefore, to deal with "emergency measures. [...] Even more so we cannot speak of emergency with regard to asylum-seeking children: on August 31st 2016, according to data of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the number of unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy (from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan) amounted to 13,862, of which 6,110 were unaccounted for. More than 6 thousand ghosts hovering in Italy: what happened to these children? In what illegal work are they being exploited? What has become of their lives, their education, their future? How is it that 6 thousand children are under the radar? Why, finally, do these children run away from the places that welcome them? What is wrong in welcoming provided to them?
These are the first questions you should ask to begin to understand what is happening with unaccompanied minors and asylum seekers in Italy. The issues that the Italian authorities have to address, urgently, in order to respect the fundamental rights of the child, in accordance with the provisions of national and international law, are matters relating to the identification model and the reception system here. More and more NGOs and associations registered the illegitimate and unjustified detention of thousands of children in Italian hotspots, where not infrequently, as stated by Amnesty International in its latest report, children are subjected to harassment, violence and even torture for the detection of digital fingerprints. There are even a considerable number of cases where they are expelled on the basis of arbitrary decisions (under national and international law foreign minors cannot be expelled from the national territory).
The host system is still so predominantly marked on the emergency, where any effort for the social inclusion of children stands at zero. Minor asylum seekers are "parked" in these centers - often built far from population centers - awaiting the outcome of their application for protection (which can last for years), or simply to be thrown out once they reach the age of eighteen. The rights of foreign minors have time limit. There is a deadline. They are a bit like Cinderella’s ball gown: at midnight it simply disappears, and this is what happens to the rights of unaccompanied minors when they reach the age of majority.
The issues to be addressed also involve the education and health systems, where greater efforts need to be made for the social inclusion of children.
In your opinion, does Italy receive sufficient support from the European Union to help children who are in this condition?
Let’s start with the facts: no foreign child has been included in the resettlement program for asylum seekers in Europe, in the Agenda for Immigration and Asylum of the European Commission, approved in May 2015, which has also proved largely unsuccessful even for adult asylum seekers. Therefore, there is no concrete aid in this regard. There was, however, funding from the European Union on asylum. The question is whether the amounts are adequate. It is worth mentioning here that, according to the latest Report on Immigration 2016, the tax contributions of immigrants in Italy exceed several billion - and for many years - the amount spent by the state for them. We must also take this data into account before stating that "there is no money".
What could be done to facilitate the entry and reception of minors who arrive in Italy?
Those fleeing from war and poverty, including children, do not have the opportunity to request visas for Schengen entry to reach Europe comfortably by plane. Millions of material obstacles (lack of money, war, physical inability to reach European embassies) and administrative (entry visas to be issued requiring an infinite number of requirements to be met, often economic) impede their safe arrival. To survive, then, they can only use the illegal entry road, through the recourse of traffickers. Entering Italy illegally is not a choice at this point, it is something that comes their way by objectively imposed EU (and Italian) policies on entry visas.
For several months, some associations and organizations have supported the creation of so-called "humanitarian corridors”. It 's always a good thing to save human lives and, therefore, so be it. But what is opaque in similar proposals is the criteria of selection of people to save through these "corridors". It is not clear who decides, who can be included and on what basis the criteria separates those who should be saved and those who can die. There is, therefore, a big ethical question to be addressed here as well.
Speaking of refugees, the former mayor of Campo dell'Elba, Lorenzo Lambardi, said that "local governments are being asked to help the State at a time when we cannot even provide services to our citizens”. In your opinion, would it be wise to place a cap on the number of foreigners seeking refuge in Italy as a way to overcome this problem?
European countries have put countless caps over the arrival of foreigners in the last twenty to thirty years. The "zero immigration" policy has been a reality for several decades. And the result? Arrivals are not only not diminishing, but have actually increased. The only difference from the past is that now they have to enter illegally, "in secret". The fact is that some businesses (including mafia) are not at all sorry for this, being able to take advantage of very low-cost labor through blackmail, because of the illegal status of many refugees. When the reasons for departure are linked to survival, there is no cap that can stop people arriving.
There is a widespread feeling that world balance could change considerably after the result of the American elections. Do you believe that the success of Donald Trump could encourage xenophobic movements in Italy, making efforts to help refugees even more difficult?
We must watch, with alarm, the growth of xenophobic and racist movements, wherever they are born or are enhanced, in the United States as in Italy, which – and this must be said without fear - in terms of racism has very few lessons to be taken around the world. However, I believe that migration is also a formidable factor of social transformation: at work, in schools, in neighborhoods, in public places, services, trade unions, universities, in work, personal life, etc. The presence of immigrants in these areas of daily life can be a unique and positive potential for overcoming anxieties and national antagonisms.
Living, working and studying shoulder to shoulder with workers and students from the four corners of the globe is a material and spiritual experience that breaks down fear, which changes our cognitive faculties, and can therefore create an antidote against any racist and xenophobic "virus".
The Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has, for many years, stood as the vanguard of a movement opposed to racist and xenophobic tendencies, contributing with the Professional Master's programme on Immigration (now in its sixteenth edition), with various ad hoc constituted teachings on migrant movements and countless conferences and seminars not only on the study and understanding of this important social phenomena, but also to spread a culture of solidarity and friendship between immigrants and natives.
Above: photo by Mstyslav Chernov/Unframe (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
