A petition against a tents camp opened in a baseball field of Messina University, where hundreds of...

FOR EFFECTIVE SOLIDARITY WITH THE REFUGEES HOSTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF

MESSINA (SICILY)

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT, PROF. PIETRO NAVARRA,

ON THE IMMIGRATION EMERGENCY AND THE UNIVERSITY

In October 2013, following what is possibly the most dreadful shipwreck that ever occurred off the

shores of Lampedusa, the municipality of Messina offered to accommodate some of the asylum seekers that

arrived on the island.

Due to the lack of adequate shelter, the Prefecture [representing the central government of Italy in a

province] of Messina requested that the local university make some of its buildings available for this

purpose. The Prefecture’s “Security Committee”, after rejecting the university student houses as

incompatible with proper surveillance, decided to co-opt the “Palanebiolo” sports center to receive the first

cohort of 180 asylum seekers. Between October and December, a first group of men and minors was

accommodated in an emergency dormitory set up in the indoor basketball court. Yet the “Palanebiolo” was

clearly inadequate for the basic needs of such a large number of people, and soon health and hygiene

problems arose.

Some people suspected to suffer from scabies were discovered and isolated in the bathrooms’ anti-

chamber. Moreover, three weeks after their arrival in Messina, some asylum seekers were still in pain from

the injuries and traumas they had suffered during their long journey to Sicily: the volunteers who offered

legal assistance reported tens of such cases, left unaddressed. The most glaring case – yet not the only one –

is that of a young man with a leg fracture due to firearm who was not granted access to the hospital for

unexplained bureaucratic reasons.

While this first phase of the emergency was fading out and asylum seekers were being sent to more

adequate centers (Cara and Sprar) elsewhere in Italy, a tent camp was set up in the “Palanebiolo” baseball

field in order to accommodate about 250 people (thus exposing them to rain, cold and mud).

At this point, the municipality entered into a real institutional conflict with the Prefecture and

proposed an alternative site (the residence “Le Dune”) which the Prefecture did not even consider for

technical and legal reasons. Early in December, for a few days, the “Palanebiolo” was completely emptied,

yet the tent camp was left standing. While the local press claimed that the “Palanebiolo” keys had been

finally returned to the university administration, many wondered about the tent camp left in place. The

answer came soon: a second batch of 160 men, women and minors were quartered there. However, this time

the Prefecture’s strategy had changed: the newcomers were quickly redirected elsewhere and new arrivals

followed rapidly. During this second phase, the local press confirmed a rumor that had been circulating for a

while: the university of Messina had joined a new program – not established by the immigration law – aimed

at creating new sorting facilities, where illegal migrants and asylum seekers awaiting transfer to regular

immigrations centers could be temporarily housed.

Thus, the “Palanebiolo” sports center, which belongs to the University of Messina, had become a

participant in a tragic story of containment and substantial limitation of the rights in force in Europe. This

participation was due to the joint decision of the Prefecture of Messina and the Italian Home Office to house

hundreds of people in a building inadequate for that use, after having firmly refused to let them be placed

elsewhere on the territory, despite the declared availability of local associations, families and churches.

During the past twenty years, research on humanitarian emergencies has shown that situations

similar to that in Messina today, born under the rhetoric of solidarity, have unfortunately resulted in

ghettoizing migrants, dehumanizing them and depriving them of their basic freedoms, resorting to “states of

exception” that are indefensible on both theoretical and legal grounds.

In view of these arguments and in support of the solidarity principle that certainly guided the

President of the University of Messina when he first granted the use of the “Palanebiolo” field to the

Prefecture, we - professors, researchers, students and citizens - ask that the President, Prof. Pietro Navarra:

1. Call a public assembly, open to the academic, administrative and student communities, and

to the V Borough, so as to activate the university’s capability to identify alternative

solutions;

2. Second what has been previously done by other universities in similar situations and

establish an ad hoc committee, composed of scholars specialized in law, medicine and social

sciences, so as to assist and support the asylum seekers and the migrants;

3. Start and promote a solidarity campaign aiming at finding housing for the asylum seekers in

students’, professors’ and university staff’s homes.

4. Revoke the permit for the present use of the “Palanebiolo” field

5. Sponsor a new institutional forum that will bring together the City Council, the Prefecture

and all concerned authorities, in order to discuss alternative solutions.

Those interested in supporting this initiative, can send an email to: Pietro Saitta ([email protected] or

email directly to the President of the University of Messina, Prof. Pietro Navarra: [email protected]; and to

the following members of the Academic Senate: [email protected]; [email protected];

[email protected];

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];





[email protected]; [email protected]; CC: [email protected]

Signatures

1) Pietro Saitta,

2) Milena Meo,

3) Andrea Biagiotti,

4) Berardino Palumbo,

5) Marina Quattropani,

6) Giuseppe Cusmano,

7) Lidia Lo Schiavo,

8) Antonella Cocchiara,

9) Maria Foti,

10) Andrea Biagiotti,

11) Alessia Cervini,

12) Giuseppe Cusmano,

13) Valentina Raffa,

14) Antonella Arena,

15) Luana Sorrenti,

16) Marina Dolfin,

17) Beniamino Ginatempo,

18) Mauro Federico,

19) Angela Villani,

20) Ulderico Wanderlingh,

21) Giuseppina Laganà,

22) Cristina Arizzi,

23) Giuseppe Restifo,

24) Stefania Taviano,

25) Elshafie Elhadi Mohamed Idriss,

26) Cesare de Gregorio,

27) Antonietta Cammarota,

28) David Carfì,

29) Maria Francesca Davi,

30) Alessandro Arangio,

31) Dino Costa,

32) Maria Gabriella Campolo,

33) Clara Urzi,

34) Giorgio Forni,

35) Giuseppe Bruno,

36) René Corona,

37) Lorenzo Casini,

38) Bruno Tripodi,

39) Rosa Maria Picone,

40) Maria Felicia Schepis,

41) Vincenza Sofo,

42) Francesco Zanotelli,

43) Angela La Macchia,

44) Adriana Tisano,

45) Alessandro Crisafulli,

46) Antonio Russo,

47) Giulia Colavecchio,

48) Fabio Mostaccio,

49) Società per gli Studi sul Medio Oriente

50) Pietro Clemente,

51) Sandro Triulzi,

Università degli Studi di Messina
















































Università di Firenze

Università di Napoli "L'Orientale"

52) Adriano Favole,

53) "Isku xir" - Gruppo di studio sulla

memoria e il presente delle relazioni

tra l’Italia e i paesi del Corno d’Africa

54) Charlie Barnao,

55) Associazione Antigone per i diritti

e le garanzie nel sistema penale

56) Tindaro Bellinvia,

57) Salvatore Palidda,

58) Anna Simone,

59) Devi Sacchetto,

60) Domenico Perrotta,

61) Susanne Elsen,

62) Associazione Fanon

63) Simona Taliani,

64) Roberto Beneduce,

65) Barbara Sorgoni,

66) Luca Jourdan,

67) Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo

68) Daniele Barbieri

69) Centro Studi Pio La Torre

70) Cinzia Arruzza

71) Ugo Fabietti

72) Pietro Cingolani

73) Ferdinando Mirizzi

74) Società italiana per la museografia

e i beni demoetnoantropologici

75) Dorothy Zinn

76) Anna Rosa Favretto

77) Elisabetta Grande

78) Alessandro Dal Lago

79) Società Italiana Antropologia Applicata

80) Bruno Riccio

81) Giovanni Pizza

82) Giuseppe Schirripa

83) Vanessa Maher

84) Antonello Petrillo

85) Cristina Papa

86) Paolo Magaudda

87) Paolo Viazzo

88) Ivan Pupolizio

89) Marcello Maneri

90) Domenica Farinella

91) Patrizia Resta

92) Michael Herzfeld

93) Naor Ben-Yehoyada

94) Paul Ponsaers

95) Valeria Verdolini

96) Sabina Magliocco

97) Valentina Napolitano

98) Rita Astuti

99) Filippo Zerilli

100) Roberto Mosconi

101) Cristiana Giordano

Università di Torino

Università di Catanzaro "Magna Graecia"


Università di Genova

Università di Roma Tre

Università di Padova

Università di Bergamo

Libera Università di Bolzano



Università di Bologna


Università di Palermo

Isia-Urbino

New School for Social Research (New York)

Università di Milano Bicocca

Forum internazionale e europeo di ricerca sulle migrazioni

Università degli Studi della Basilicata

Università di Bolzano

Università del Piemonte Orientale

Università del Piemonte Orientale



Università di Perugia

Università di Roma La Sapienza

Università di Verona

Università di Napoli Suor Orsola Benincasa

Università di Perugia



Università degli Studi di Bari


Università di Cagliari

Università degli Studi di Foggia

Harvard University

Harvard University

Ghent University


University of California State, Northridge

University of Toronto

London School of Economics

Università di Cagliari


University of California Davis

102) Tina Catania

103) Camilla Hawthorne

104) Rachel Slocum

105) Carlo Elia Sica

106) Maria Minicucci

107) Marino Niola

108) Giordana Charuty

109) Jorge Conçalves, Università di Lisbona

110) Associazione Nazionale Universitaria

degli Antropologi Culturali

111) Carmelo Buscema

112) Monica Musolino

113) Gennaro Avallone

114) Dario Brancato

115) Orazio Irrera

116) Giovanni Raffaele

117) Deborah Kay

118) Giso Amendola

119) Giuliana Sanò

120) Ignazia Bartholini

121) Natalina Lodato

122) Marco De Biase

123) Eduardo Barberis

124) Giorgio Manfrè

125) Luisa Stagi

126) Paola Di Mauro

127) Giovanni Torrisi

128) Caterina Benelli

129) Helle Johannessen

130) Rosa De Jorio

131) Mariane C. Ferme

132) Francesca Coin

133) Heather Merrill

134) Aaron Pollack

135) Michael Blim

136) Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro

137) Maurizio Albahari

138) Ignazio Buttitta

139) Tina Catania

140) Paola Secchi

141) Magali Sarfatti Larson

142) Demetra Kasimis

143) Elisabetta Moro

144) Guillermo Almeyra

145) Ivo Quaranta

146) Centro di consultazione culturale

147) Emma Cervone

148) Greg Grandin

149) Jeffrey Cole

150) Pier Paolo Zampieri

151) Alessandro Lutri

152) Centro Studi e Ricerche sulla

Salute Internazionale e Interculturale

dell’Università di Bologna

Syracuse University

University of Berkeley

University of Wisconsin La Crosse

Syracuse University

Università di Roma “La Sapienza”


Ecole Pratique des Haute Etudes – Parigi

Università di Lisbona

Università di Cosenza


Università di Salerno

Concordia University

Universitè Paris 8



Università degli Studi di Salerno



Istituto Universitario Orientale - Napoli

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”



Università di Messina



University of Southern Denmark

University of North Florida

University of California, Berkeley

Università di Venezia

Hamilton College

Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. Mora - Ciudad de Mexico

Graduate Center of the City University of New York

University of New Paltz

University of Notre Dame


Syracuse University


University of Temple

California State University, Long Beach


Universidad de Buenos Aires


Johns Hopkins University

New York University

Connecticut College


Università di Catania

153) Mara Benadusi

154) Rachele Borghi

155) Alison Phipps

156) Società Italiana di Antropologia Medica

157) Fabio Quassoli

158) Robert Gibb

159) Gregory Philo

160) Chiara Marchetti

Università di Catania

Paris IV Sorbonne

University of Glasgow




Università di Milano

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