By Sarah Lafen
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe
ROME, Italy — In the wake of Wednesday’s earthquake in Italy, thousands of migrant refugees currently hoping to gain asylum in Italy flocked to the sites most affected by the quake to aid in rescue efforts. These refugees hail from multiple countries, including Senegal, Niger, and Burkina Fasso, and arrived in Italy via boats run by human traffickers. In Calabria, a group of over 70 refugee asylum seekers pooled their daily allowance money of two euros ($2.30) to donate to earthquake survivors.
In the Italian town Arquata del Tronto, one West African migrant named Abdullai told reporters that while he was scared of the earthquake at first, he soon realized that the survivors of the quake needed his help as much as possible. Abdullai and 16 other migrant workers spent a day weeding, cleaning, and preparing an area to be used as an emergency operations center. Another group of 20 Muslim migrants used gardening tools to prepare the grounds for tents to be set up, and cleared a field for a helicopter landing space. While taking a break from their physical labor, the migrants all knelt and prayed together.
According to Letizia Bellabarba, a coordinator of a charity that hosts asylum seekers, the refugees came up with the idea to aid in rescue efforts themselves. Bellabarba says that the refugees “said that Italy welcomed and helped them, and it was now their turn to help Italians.” Approximately 50 asylum seekers associated with the charity came forward to help, were split up into groups of 15-20 per day, and were given assignments through Italy’s Civil Protection Department.
The outreach and assistance of these asylum seekers does not quash the anti-immigration movement in Europe, however. Amidst the tragedy surrounding the earthquake, a priest in Boissano, Father Cesare Donati, expressed his anti-immigration stance through a Facebook post saying “it is now time to put the victims into housing and send the migrants to the tents…” A lumberjack who was left homeless by the earthquake said that while he is grateful for the help of the migrants, he is worried they are using up resources that should be going to the victims of the quake instead.
For more information, please see:
NPR — Migrants Help in Relief Effort After Deadly Earthquake in Italy — 28 August 2016
Reuters — African Migrants go to Italian Quake Zone to Help Survivors — 26 August 2016
