The Church and NGOs in Italy are calling on the new Italian government not to generalize about “fake solidarity” for migrants cited by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during his speech to the Senate, and to “avoid manipulations” so as to not stoke xenophobia.
The Church in Italy and humanitarian organizations such as NGOs, associations and non-profits responded in opposition to comments made on the migrant situation by new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in a speech to the Senate. In his speech, Conte said Italy “will put an end to the business of immigration, which has grown disproportionately under the cloak of fake solidarity”.
The groups said that working in migration reception and integration means offering of their time as well as money and putting forth their abilities and dedication to caring for others. They said those who would take advantage of the system should not be a part of it, but that generalizations such as those made by Conte don’t help.
‘Avoid manipulations’
Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, said the organization is “ready to continue constructive work.” She said Italy must continue to be a country that is “open to asylum and increasingly ready for integration” but that the agency is “asking the Italian government to avoid dramatizing in its communications on this topic; as manipulations or pitting sides against each other aren’t needed”.
“For us, it’s essential that the government’s priority is on saving human lives,” Sami said. Another group that helps migrants on a daily basis is the Church-based organization Caritas. “Fake solidarity doesn’t exist; solidarity is either there or it isn’t,” said Caritas’ migration director Oliviero Forti. “Hearing it talked about as a business seems malicious to me,” Forti said.
“Of course, there are those who unfortunately make a business out if it, but this is linked to the emergency situation that causes trusting in people who aren’t controlled. But for those people, who we point out first, we can’t all pay the price,” he said.
Sant’Egidio says ‘migrant support is often free’
The Community of Sant’Egidio highlighted the fact that migrant support is often provided by volunteers and thus is provided free of charge. “There are many groups, many parishes, Italian families who make their homes available, all for free,” said Daniela Pompei, director of migrant services at the Community of Sant’Egidio. “If there are abuses, they must be eliminated, but you can’t generalize,” she said.
Paolo Naso, of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, said the problem is that in the past, the Italian government “waived the rules on transparency because, on the wave of the emergency, it established relationships with people who were unprepared for reception”.
“Therefore, if there’s more transparency, all of us are in agreement,” Naso said. UNICEF made its views clear as well. “We are and we will be beside the Italian executive branch if it doesn’t foment hate and if it puts measures in the field that protect children in particular, who are the weakest link in the chain,” said UNICEF Italy spokesman Andrea Iacomini. “Migrant children, I repeat, are not to be touched,” he said.
Riccardo Gatti, mission head at the NGO Open Arms, which conducts migrant rescues at sea, said transparency is needed, but so is respect for those working in the field. “If on the one hand, it’s true that various scandals have come forth on fake reception projects, on the other hand, we continue to work as we always have, because we have nothing to hide,” Gatti said.
Fonte: Info Migrants
Portuguese
English 
Italian 
Spanish