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| Immigrants from Africa and Asia clean an unused military base in Belluno, northern Italy, part of a programme for integrating the thousands of migrants in the country (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA) |
Belluno
(Italy) (AFP) - As US President Donald Trump's anti-Muslim decree fuels a
tumultuous global debate, Italy is quietly experimenting with an integration
project to better the lives of both asylum seekers and locals.
Snow falls
thick and fast in Belluno, a town at the foot of the Dolomites, but a group of
young men from across Africa works cheerfully to clean up the grounds of a
military barrack that is to become a new cultural centre.
"It's
the first time I've seen the snow; I love it and I love this project,"
Nawaz Tashawar, a 35-year-old from Pakistan, told AFP with a shy grin last
week.
From
Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, they have been posted to
this industrial heartland of 35,000 inhabitants near Venice, earning their keep
by working without pay in parks, kitchens and schools.
The
government has been watching, and is expected to unveil plans Wednesday to take
the project nationwide, making it compulsory for those waiting for the verdict
on their asylum requests to work as volunteers.
"We'd
be at home doing nothing, we have no work, we'd simply eat, sleep," said
Paul Adjei from the Ivory Coast. "So we decided together to help the town,
so it can move forwards."
The
question of what to do with the thousands of people arriving in Italy each year
has proved divisive.
There are
over 175,000 asylum seekers languishing in reception centres as they wait for
their applications to be processed, which can take up to two years.
"Many
cannot bear not doing anything," Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told AFP.
"So
making themselves useful for a few hours a day for the community that is
welcoming them can be a good thing for them psychologically," she said.
Migrants in
Italy are allowed to start working two months after they lodge their
application for asylum, but jobs are thin on the ground.
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"We
all need to invest a little to resolve a problem that is bigger than us,"
says
Jacopo Massaro, Belluno's mayor (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)
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'Need to
invest'
The
government is expected to pledge next week to speed up the repatriation of
those refused permission to stay, but has had difficulties sealing deals with
many countries.
It will
also warn regional councils across Italy that asylum seekers will be spread
more evenly, with 2.5 migrants to every 1,000 residents -- a plan that has been
denounced by some mayors who say they have neither the resources nor the will
to host outsiders.
Belluno,
which has a left-wing mayor but sits in the middle of anti-immigrant Northern
League territory, is not complaining. The 100 or so migrants here have painted
the town's railings and school gates and mowed lawns in parks under the
supervision of local associations.
The
project, launched in 2014, is based on the idea that autonomy can facilitate
lasting integration. Instead of forcing asylum seekers to live in tent camps or
large centres, they are given small apartments to share, and do their own
shopping and cooking.
Mayor
Jacopo Massaro laughs off the suggestion that he is the antithesis of Trump and
other advocates of walls to keep migrants out.
"I
don't feel like an anti-Trump, no! To put it simply, we thought that what with
the difficulties Italy and Europe are experiencing, we all need to invest a
little to resolve a problem that is bigger than us", he said.
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The
programme houses migrants in apartments, instead of leaving them in tent
camps
or reception centres (AFP Photo/MIGUEL MEDINA)
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A helping
hand
The flow of
people from the coasts of northern Africa to Italy -- 170,000 in 2014, 150,000
in 2015 and 181,000 last year -- has resulted in the biggest migrant crisis
since World War Two.
But as
Italy groans under the pressure, the idea of making asylum seekers work for
free has angered those who say the country should be tackling its unemployment
problem.
Youth
unemployment in the country stood at 40 percent in December.
Massaro
says that the migrants are doing jobs the town cannot afford, and that "we
have not taken away work from anyone".
Not
everyone, however, is keen to work without pay.
"We
cannot be left with nothing in our pockets, we need more. We need a job,"
Adjei said.
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