Migrants in standoff in Italy!
Two Africans were shot and injured tonight as racial unrest continued to grip the southern Italian town of Rosarno after a night of rioting and an earlier shooting in which two other immigrants were wounded.
On a main road, close to a disused building in which hundreds of itinerant farm workers live in conditions of squalor, about 100 local people armed with iron bars and wooden staves were manning an illegal roadblock.
The latest shooting took place at the same location as the earlier attack – an unoccupied factory on the outskirts of the town that also serves as sleeping quarters for African workers. As in the previous attack, a drive-by shooting, the victims were hit and injured with pellets from an air rifle or pistol.
Following the first incident, more than 100 immigrants rampaged through the town last night, smashing car windows with steels bars, setting rubbish bins on fire, forcing local residents out of their cars and setting the cars alight, and clashing with police in riot gear.
Some 2,000 immigrants demonstrated in front of the town hall today to protest against what they said was racist treatment by locals. Some shouted "We are not animals" and carried signs reading "Italians here are racist".
As the demonstrators marched through Rosarno to the town hall, a resident fired shots into the air from his balcony, allegedly to protect his wife and child, who he said had had stones thrown at them by protesters.
By nightfall, after further demonstrations by immigrants and locals, seven people had been arrested and 34 injured.
Several clashes were reported between locals and immigrant farm workers, most of whom come from sub-Saharan Africa or the Maghreb. Furious over the violence and damage, groups of locals occupied the town hall and blocked a main road.
Silvio Berlusconi's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, provoked controversy by appearing to blame earlier governments for the outburst of violence. He said: "For all these years, clandestine immigration has been tolerated, which feeds crime."
But others pointed a finger at the farm workers' conditions. Father Carmelo Ascone, the parish priest of Rosarno, said they reminded him of the circles of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. "These people live in inhuman and desperate conditions," he said.
Several thousand immigrants live in and around Rosarno while helping with the harvest of oranges and clementines.
Looming behind the disturbances was Calabria's mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. A town of 14,000 inhabitants, Rosarno is a stronghold of the organisation, which Italian police and prosecutors say has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra to become the country's most potent crime syndicate. In December 2008, the town council was dissolved on orders from the head of state because it was infiltrated by mobsters and their known associates. Rosarno is currently administered by a prefect appointed by the central government.
The prefect, Domenico Bagnato, said today: "The situation is serious and onerous. I have spoken to the immigrants and I have told them that we shall do everything possible to protect them. But I have also made it clear that they ought not to confuse an attack by individuals with the attitude of the entire town."
Just over a year ago, at the time of the last citrus harvest, an unknown gunman walked into a factory where several hundred farm workers were sleeping and shot two of them. One, a 21-year-old from the Ivory Coast, was seriously injured.
The latest riot began as a protest against the insecure conditions in which the immigrants find themselves. But a former town councillor, Domenico Ventre, said: "The immigrants in Rosarno are helped and assisted. Their reaction to the isolated incident on Thursday was disproportionate. We cannot allow them to devastate our town, spreading fear among the inhabitants."
In their report of arrests, the Carabinieri said that one man had been held for trying to run over a farm worker with an earth mover. Another had allegedly attempted to run down an immigrant with his car.
A smaller riot by immigrants broke out near Naples in September 2008 after a multiple killing that was linked to organised crime.
According to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas, immigrants now account for 7.2% of the resident population in Italy — one percentage point more than the EU average. Caritas put the number of legal immigrants at 4.5 million and said the number of illegal immigrants had fallen sharply, to 422,000.
Berlusconi's government has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and made an agreement with Libya to prevent boatloads of immigrants landing on its southern shores from Africa. The boats are now routinely intercepted in international waters and returned to Libya.
Grapes of wrath
Desperation of itinerant workers
The disturbances in Calabria have brought home the fact that the wretched migrants who arrive from Africa off Italy's coastline do not disappear once they are taken ashore. Thousands end up in a transient workforce of crop-pickers that finds work in the south.
Some of the Africans who rebelled after the shooting in Rosarno will have been helping with the wine harvest in Sicily in the early autumn or picking olives in Puglia in the late autumn. Some will be intending to drift up to Campania, around Naples, next spring.
On the Gioia Tauro plain which encompasses Rosarno, they are collected each morning by overseers and driven into citrus groves for work that can last from dawn to dusk.
"They earn €25 a day", said Father Ennio Stamile of the Roman Catholic charity Caritas. "They have to send money to their countries to maintain their families and also live here. Not much is left for them. The economic crisis has exacerbated their situation."
"On the plain, there are about 2,000 African immigrants who sleep the night crowded together in a former paper mill and another large building, said Monsignor Pino de Masi, the vicar-general of the Oppido-Palmi diocese. "If anyone from central government were to see the conditions in which they live, without sanitation, electricity, water or heating, they would not be surprised by what has happened."
On a main road, close to a disused building in which hundreds of itinerant farm workers live in conditions of squalor, about 100 local people armed with iron bars and wooden staves were manning an illegal roadblock.
The latest shooting took place at the same location as the earlier attack – an unoccupied factory on the outskirts of the town that also serves as sleeping quarters for African workers. As in the previous attack, a drive-by shooting, the victims were hit and injured with pellets from an air rifle or pistol.
Following the first incident, more than 100 immigrants rampaged through the town last night, smashing car windows with steels bars, setting rubbish bins on fire, forcing local residents out of their cars and setting the cars alight, and clashing with police in riot gear.
Some 2,000 immigrants demonstrated in front of the town hall today to protest against what they said was racist treatment by locals. Some shouted "We are not animals" and carried signs reading "Italians here are racist".
As the demonstrators marched through Rosarno to the town hall, a resident fired shots into the air from his balcony, allegedly to protect his wife and child, who he said had had stones thrown at them by protesters.
By nightfall, after further demonstrations by immigrants and locals, seven people had been arrested and 34 injured.
Several clashes were reported between locals and immigrant farm workers, most of whom come from sub-Saharan Africa or the Maghreb. Furious over the violence and damage, groups of locals occupied the town hall and blocked a main road.
Silvio Berlusconi's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, provoked controversy by appearing to blame earlier governments for the outburst of violence. He said: "For all these years, clandestine immigration has been tolerated, which feeds crime."
But others pointed a finger at the farm workers' conditions. Father Carmelo Ascone, the parish priest of Rosarno, said they reminded him of the circles of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. "These people live in inhuman and desperate conditions," he said.
Several thousand immigrants live in and around Rosarno while helping with the harvest of oranges and clementines.
Looming behind the disturbances was Calabria's mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. A town of 14,000 inhabitants, Rosarno is a stronghold of the organisation, which Italian police and prosecutors say has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra to become the country's most potent crime syndicate. In December 2008, the town council was dissolved on orders from the head of state because it was infiltrated by mobsters and their known associates. Rosarno is currently administered by a prefect appointed by the central government.
The prefect, Domenico Bagnato, said today: "The situation is serious and onerous. I have spoken to the immigrants and I have told them that we shall do everything possible to protect them. But I have also made it clear that they ought not to confuse an attack by individuals with the attitude of the entire town."
Just over a year ago, at the time of the last citrus harvest, an unknown gunman walked into a factory where several hundred farm workers were sleeping and shot two of them. One, a 21-year-old from the Ivory Coast, was seriously injured.
The latest riot began as a protest against the insecure conditions in which the immigrants find themselves. But a former town councillor, Domenico Ventre, said: "The immigrants in Rosarno are helped and assisted. Their reaction to the isolated incident on Thursday was disproportionate. We cannot allow them to devastate our town, spreading fear among the inhabitants."
In their report of arrests, the Carabinieri said that one man had been held for trying to run over a farm worker with an earth mover. Another had allegedly attempted to run down an immigrant with his car.
A smaller riot by immigrants broke out near Naples in September 2008 after a multiple killing that was linked to organised crime.
According to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas, immigrants now account for 7.2% of the resident population in Italy — one percentage point more than the EU average. Caritas put the number of legal immigrants at 4.5 million and said the number of illegal immigrants had fallen sharply, to 422,000.
Berlusconi's government has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and made an agreement with Libya to prevent boatloads of immigrants landing on its southern shores from Africa. The boats are now routinely intercepted in international waters and returned to Libya.
Grapes of wrath
Desperation of itinerant workers
The disturbances in Calabria have brought home the fact that the wretched migrants who arrive from Africa off Italy's coastline do not disappear once they are taken ashore. Thousands end up in a transient workforce of crop-pickers that finds work in the south.
Some of the Africans who rebelled after the shooting in Rosarno will have been helping with the wine harvest in Sicily in the early autumn or picking olives in Puglia in the late autumn. Some will be intending to drift up to Campania, around Naples, next spring.
On the Gioia Tauro plain which encompasses Rosarno, they are collected each morning by overseers and driven into citrus groves for work that can last from dawn to dusk.
"They earn €25 a day", said Father Ennio Stamile of the Roman Catholic charity Caritas. "They have to send money to their countries to maintain their families and also live here. Not much is left for them. The economic crisis has exacerbated their situation."
"On the plain, there are about 2,000 African immigrants who sleep the night crowded together in a former paper mill and another large building, said Monsignor Pino de Masi, the vicar-general of the Oppido-Palmi diocese. "If anyone from central government were to see the conditions in which they live, without sanitation, electricity, water or heating, they would not be surprised by what has happened."
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Ergänzungen
source of the article...
Artikel in der tageszeitung (taz)
Rassismus in Italien
Die Gewalt eskaliert
Im kalabresischen Rosarno beantworten afrikanische Immigranten rassistische Schüsse mit Gewalt. Zuvor hatten sie nach einem ähnlichen Angriff noch friedlich protestiert. VON MICHAEL BRAUN
ROM taz | Umgestürzte Autos, eingeschlagene Schaufensterscheiben, brennende Müllcontainer: Am Donnerstagabend zogen einige hundert schwarzafrikanische Immigranten eine Spur der Verwüstung durch die süditalienische Kleinstadt Rosarno. Die kollektive Gewalt hatte ein Anschlag italienischer Jugendlicher auf zwei Afrikaner ausgelöst.
Die Jugendlichen hatten aus einem fahrenden Auto heraus mit Luftpistolen auf von der Arbeit heimkehrende Immigranten geschossen und zwei von ihnen verletzt. Ein ähnlicher Vorfall hatte sich schon im Dezember 2008 zugetragen, als auch zwei Afrikaner beschossen und schwer verletzt wurden. Damals hatten die Migranten mit einer friedlichen Demonstration vor Rosarnos Rathaus reagiert.
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Jetzt dagegen schlug der Protest sofort in gewalttätige Ausschreitungen um. Einige hundert Afrikaner errichteten Sperren auf der Straße, die Rosarno mit den Nachbarorten verbindet, warfen Steine auf Autos, schlugen mit Eisenstangen die Scheiben ein. Danach zogen sie ins Zentrum Rosarnos, stürzten Autos um, fackelten quergestellte Müllcontainer ab, zertrümmerten die Schaufensterscheiben zahlreicher Geschäfte, stiegen auch auf Balkone von Wohnungen und warfen Blumenkübel herab, während die Bewohner sich in ihren Häusern verbarrikadierten. Erst nach Stunden gelang es Polizei und Carabinieri, die Unruhen in den Griff zu bekommen. Gezählt wurden 20 Verletzte: 6 sind Demonstranten, 14 dagegen Italiener, die etwa in ihren Autos durch Steinwürfe verletzt wurden.
Dass die Revolte so dramatische Formen annahm, liegt vor allem an den miserablen Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen der Afrikaner in Rosarno. Die Stadt, eine Hochburg der Ndrangheta, der kalabresischen Mafia, zählt etwa 15.000 Einwohner, zu denen im Winter noch einmal etwa 2.000 bis 3.000 junge Männer aus dem Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria oder Togo kommen. Sie werden als Erntehelfer auf den Mandarinenplantagen angeheuert. Bei manchmal bis zu 12-14 Stunden täglicher Arbeitszeit beträgt der Tageslohn ganze 20-25 Euro. Davon müssen 5 Euro an den jeweiligen italienischen "Vermittler" von der örtlichen Mafia abgeführt werden, der sie angeheuert hat. Unterkünfte bekommen die Erntearbeiter nicht. Sie müssen in Abbruchhäusern oder in leer stehenden Fabrikhallen nächtigen, in denen die meisten Igluzelte aufschlagen.
Nach dem Krawall dürfte sich die Situation der Migranten weiter verschlechtern. Schon am Donnerstagabend rotteten sich mehr als hundert italienische Jugendliche zusammen und suchten die Konfrontation. Nur mühsam gelang der Polizei, direkte Zusammenstöße zu vermeiden. Auch am Freitag blieb die Situation gespannt. Am Vormittag versammelten sich 2.000 Migranten zum Protest und zogen vor das Rathaus. Zugleich fordert eine Delegation von Bürgern Rosarnos im Gespräch mit dem Präfekten von Reggio Calabria, die meist ohne Aufenthaltserlaubnis in Italien lebenden Afrikaner aus Rosarno zu entfernen.
Tagesschau mit Audiobericht
today's article in 'the observer'(UK)...
Meldung mit Verweis auf ital. Quellen
hier eine aktuelle deutschsprachige Meldung mit Verweis auf verschiedene italienische Quellen,
Alles "Illegale"?
Rosarno treibt Immigranten in die Flucht
Die Behörden brachten etwa 800 Immigranten mit Bussen in Notunterkünfte in den Städten Crotone und Bari. Als die Busse aus der 15.000 Menschen zählenden Kleinstadt abfuhren, applaudierten Einwohner. Viele Immigranten, die meisten im Besitz einer Aufenthaltsgenehmigung, waren zuvor auf eigene Faust geflohen. Aus Angst verzichteten sie sogar auf ihren Lohn, sagte eine Vertreterin des UN-Hochkommissariats für Flüchtlinge in Italien. Ein 25-jähriger Ghanaer sagte der Nachrichtenagentur AFP, sein Arbeitgeber schulde ihm 200 Euro. Er habe aber zu viel Angst, um in Rosarno zu bleiben: "Wenn ich nicht gehe, werde ich sterben".
Unruhen nach Schüssen
In Rosarno hatte es seit Donnerstagabend gewalttätige Ausschreitungen zwischen Bewohnern und Polizisten sowie Einwanderern gegeben. Dabei wurden nach Behördenangaben 67 Menschen verletzt, darunter 31 Ausländer, 17 Einheimische und 19 Polizisten. Nachdem Unbekannte mit Luftgewehren auf die Erntehelfer geschossen hatten, gingen diese aus Wut auf die Straßen, steckten Autos in Brand, schlugen Schaufenster ein und lieferten sich Kämpfe mit der Polizei.
Aufgebrachte Anwohner wollten sich dafür offenbar am Freitag rächen. Mit Steinen, Gewehren, Traktoren und Eisenstangen gingen sie auf die protestierenden Saisonarbeiter los. Sie fuhren mehrere Afrikaner absichtlich mit ihren Autos an, errichteten Barrikaden und besetzten vorübergehend das Rathaus. Italienische Medien berichteten von einer wahren "Jagd auf Schwarze". Am Samstag beruhigte sich die Lage in Rosarno wieder.
Sklavenarbeit für einen Hungerlohn
In der Gegend um Rosarno waren mehr als 4000 Immigranten überwiegend illegal als Saisonarbeiter in der Landwirtschaft eingesetzt. Für Hungerlöhne arbeiteten sie unter oft menschenunwürdigen Bedingungen. Nach Angaben des UN-Flüchtlingswerks hausten sie in einem alten Fabrikgebäude vor der Stadt, in dem es lediglich acht Chemietoiletten und drei Duschen für 1000 Menschen gibt. Andere kamen in verlassenen Bauernhöfen unter. Ihr Tagesverdienst liegt bei etwa 25 Euro. In der Regel behalte die örtliche Mafia noch fünf Euro "Aufenthaltssteuer" ein, hieß es in italienischen Medien. "Mit 15 bis 20 Euro pro Tag haben wir diese Menschen zu modernen Sklaven gemacht - eine hässliche Seite im Geschichtsbuch Italiens", sagte ein Lokalpolitiker(...)
Weiterlesen:
Migrants in Germany