Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

By riding this wave of emergency, the Italian government managed to renew
cooperation agreements for the contrasting of “irregular” immigration with the
Tunisian transitional government and with the Libyan Cnt. These agreements include
measures such as the emigration ban and the turning back of boats, both of which are in
serious breach of fundamental human rights. The state of emergency also helped to
make Italian legislation on immigration even more draconian than it already was: on 14
July 2011, a decree was passed in Parliament that, among other things, established
immediate deportation for “irregular” migrants, EU citizens included, for reasons of
public order, and extended the maximum detention period in Cie to 18 months.
And it does not end here: the widespread scaremongering was used as an excuse to
double the number of detention centers and to extend the “custody” of immigrants and
refugees far beyond the deadlines prescribed by law, without the consent of judicial
authorities. 33
Even some of the tent cities and other temporary structures, initially passed off as
reception centers, 34 were later turned, by decree, into new detention centers, protected
by walls, meshes and barbed‐wire fences. In these new centers, where inmates often
include refugees and potential or current asylum seekers, the hygiene, health and
dietary conditions are, as a genral rule, abysmal. Every new day brings with it instances
of abuse, rioting, self‐harm, suicide attempts and acts of violence on the part of the
police authorities against those who protest or try to escape. Moreover, lawyers,
activists, journalists, cultural mediators, even members of Parliament are often denied
admission to the centers, as a result of a targeted decree signed by the Interior Minister.
Lastly, the Tunisian transition and, above all, NATO’s armed intervention in the Libyan
civil war, without the previous establishment of humanitarian corridors for the
evacuation of refugees – mainly escaping sub‐Saharan countries – had the effect of
doubling the number of tragedies at sea (cf. part 3, chapter 7: Grazia Naletto a cruel
diary).
The tragic deaths of men, women and children, most of them on the run from
unsustainable situations, persecution or certain death, were in some cases precipitated
by ham‐fisted rescue attempts, or indeed by deliberate failure on the part of ships
belonging to the NATO fleet.
We have not yet witnessed any significant display of emotion, pietas or solidarity in
Italian public debate and opinion, in the statements of government ministers and
politicians or in media reactions. Even when journalists, politicians or the general public
express grief over the tragedies at sea, it is usually done with a certain degree of
detachment: as Naletto points out, it often goes hand in hand with “the conviction that
Italy cannot provide for this ‘biblical exodus’”. Needless to say, there are exceptions to
be found within Italian society: activists from immigrant communities, secular and
religious anti‐racist organisations and those promoting human rights, leaders and
members of trade unions and extreme‐left parties, protestant churches, various
33 For more precise documentation on the “new concentration camps” and the urgent legislation following the
“landings emergency”, cf.: L’oxygène de la liberté. La Guantanamo italiana si allarga. Viaggio nei nuovi lager per
immigrati, (The oxygen of freedom. The Italian Guantanamo grows more vast. A journey through the new
concentration camps for immigrants) “Senza Censura”, n. 35 (July 2011).
34 In Kinisia (Trapani), Palazzo S. Gervaso (Potenza), Manduria (Taranto) and other towns in the country.
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