Africans in Messina begs for help

Yesterday’s protests in Messina (Sicily, Italy) against the bridge that will link mainland Italy with Sicily, there were not just men, women and Italian children but also African citizens who usually survive in Rosarno (Calabria region).

Arrived in Messina with the financial help of local organisations from Calabria, Africans asked in front of a crowd of thousands of people for more rights, to be treated as human beings and, above all, for a more decent place to stay that could save their life as the commissioner of the city of Rosarno in Calabria decided a couple of weeks ago to close the former “cartiera”, or ‘fabrica’ as Africans call it, after the accidental fire that destroyed all documents, money and the few belongings the African citizens had in that place.

Now they are risking their life because if they sleep in the bush or in the fields hided by high vegetations, racists and really anyone with bad intentions have an easy life in killing them or doing any harm to them without being punished.

Last December 2008, two citizens from Ghana have been shot by gun fire while they were going back after a day of work in the fields.

One of them, an 18 years old young man, had a surgical operation in Polistena’s hospital because the bullet has completely damaged his spleen.

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